Historical fiction books from Ireland
Recommended historical fiction books (36)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into historical fiction here are some historical fiction books from Ireland for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
11.
Haven by Emma Donoghue EN
Description:
Three men vow to leave the world behind them. They set out in a small boat for an island their leader has seen in a dream, with only faith to guide them. What they find is the extraordinary island now known as Skellig Michael. Haven has Emma Donoghue's trademark world-building and psychological intensity--but this story is like nothing she has ever written before. In seventh-century Ireland, a scholar and priest called Artt has a dream telling him to leave the sinful world behind. Taking two monks--young Trian and old Cormac--he rows down the river Shannon in search of an isolated spot on whic... continue
12.
Juno Loves Legs : A Novel by Karl Geary EN
Description:
For fans of Shuggie Bain and A Little Life, Juno Loves Legs is the epic and heartbreaking story of a young friendship set in working-class Dublin in the 1980s Juno Loves Legs is the story of two teens labeled as delinquents. Juno and "Legs" grow up on the same housing estate in Dublin, where spirited, intelligent Juno is ostracized for her poverty and Legs is persecuted for his sexuality; they find safety only in each other. Set against the backdrop of Dublin in the 1980s, a place of political, social and religious change, the friends yearn for an unbound life and together they begin to fight ... continue
13.
Description:
John Banville, heredero confeso de la malicia de Nabokov y la prosa de Beckett, se ha convertido en una de las voces más tersas, sugerentes y originales de las letras en lengua ingles, y en uno de los artífices del renacimiento de la literatura irlandesa. Su primer libro, Long Lankin, apareció en 1970, y luego se han sucedido, entre otros, Copérnico (ganador del Premio James Tait Black en 1976), Kepler (ganador del Premio Guardian 1981), El libro de las pruebas (1991), El intocable (1999), La carta de Newton (2001), Eclipse (2002) y Mefisto (2002). Actualmente reside en Dublín, donde es editor... continue
14.
Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue EN
Description:
Shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Prize. The heartbreaking story of the love of two women - Anne Lister, the real-life inspiration behind Gentleman Jack, and her first love, Eliza Raine - from the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder. In 1805, at a boarding school in York, two fourteen-year-old girls first meet. Eliza Raine, the orphan daughter of an Indian mother, keeps herself apart from the other girls, tired of being picked out for being different. Anne Lister, a gifted troublemaker, is determined to conquer the world, refusing to bow to society's expectations of what a woman can do. ... continue
15.
Nora : A Love Story of Nora and James Joyce by Nuala O'Connor EN
Description:
Acclaimed Irish novelist Nuala O'Connor's bold reimagining of the life of James Joyce's wife, muse, and the model for Molly Bloom in Ulysses is a "lively and loving paean to the indomitable Nora Barnacle" (Edna O'Brien). Dublin, 1904. Nora Joseph Barnacle is a twenty-year-old from Galway who left school at twelve, is a chambermaid at Finn's Hotel, and has all but given up on a happy ending. But on June 16--Bloomsday--her life is changed when she meets James Joyce, a fateful encounter that turns into a lifelong love. Despite his hesitation to marry, Nora follows him in pursuit of a life beyond ... continue
16.
Only the Stones Never Die by Padraig McLoughlin EN
Description:
On the 14th June 1894, about 400 people, many of them teenagers, were about to set off for Scotland to work picking potatoes. An annual event, the young people would travel to the west of Scotland to stay and work for up to six months. That year, it is believed that a greater number of first-timers were travelling, due to a poor potato harvest at home the previous year, and the families desperately needed their income. As the large wooden-hulled sailing boat approached Westport Quay, its passengers caught their first sight of the large steamer, which would take them to Scotland. They rushed to... continue
17.
Rebel Sisters by Marita Conlon-McKenna EN
Description:
The No.1 bestselling novel from one of Ireland's most loved writers! With the threat of the First World War looming, tension simmers under the surface of Ireland. Bright, beautiful and intelligent, the Gifford sisters Grace, Muriel and Nellie kick against the conventions of their privileged, wealthy Anglo-Irish background and their mother Isabella's expectations. As War erupts across Europe, the spirited sisters soon find themselves caught up in Ireland's struggle for freedom. Muriel falls deeply in love with writer Thomas MacDonagh, artist Grace meets the enigmatic Joe Plunkett - both leaders... continue
18.
She was a Queen by Maurice Collis EN
Description:
She was indeed a Queen. Born a peasant in thirteenth-century Burma, Queen Saw--young, beautiful, and extremely intelligent--reigned beside two kings. Everything luxuriantly cruel or voluptuously lovely swirled around the royal White Umbrella: mandarins, oracle-eating tigers, murdersome intrigue, egg-sized emeralds, concubines, fearsome magic, Tartars, and groveling courtiers (with elbows calloused as thickly as the soles of their feet). Queen Saw happily survived all--her two husbands as well as the Mongol invasion. Wonderful in its details and historical lore, the chief enchantment of She Was... continue
19.
Sing, Wild Bird, Sing by Jacqueline O'Mahony EN
Description:
A courageous woman journeys from nineteenth-century Ireland to the American West in a powerful novel about the indomitable will to survive--and to flourish--against nearly impossible odds. It's 1849 on the west coast of Ireland. Resilient Honora O'Donoghue is accustomed to fending for herself and to reading the language of the natural world. It was always said she'd been marked for something different, but it's not until she suffers devastating losses in a country gripped by the Famine that Honora begins to understand how that difference will save her. With the hope of a better life in America... continue
20.
Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth EN
Description:
** Shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize 2024 ** ** Shortlisted for the 2024 Book of the Year: Discover Award by the British Book Awards ** ** Shortlisted for the 2023 Nero Book Award for Debut Fiction ** ** Longlisted for the Diverse Book Awards 2024 ** ** An Evening Standard 'One to Watch in 2023 ** ** An Independent ‘Best Romantic Summer Reads' ** ** A Book of the Month pick for Diva, Irish Examiner, Novellic & Sainsbury’s Magazine ** ** A Most Anticipated pick for PinkNews & Queer on the Street ** It's the early 1990s, and in the Irish village of Crossmore, Lucy feels out of place. D... continue