CELEBRATING YOUR FAVOURITE IRISH BOOKS OF THE LAST 20 YEARS

Ninety-Nine Words for Rain (and One for Sun)

Manchán Magan, illustrated by Megan Luddy

There are many, many words for rain in Irish. This richness reveals the closeness with which our ancestors observed the world around them. They believed that is maith an scéalaí an aimsir – weather is a good storyteller.

In Ninety-Nine Words for Rain (and One for Sun), Manchán Magan, whose hugely popular books Thirty-Two Words for Field and Listen to the Land Speak have re-enchanted a new generation, encourages you to see the world through the eyes of the néaladóirí (cloud-watchers) and réadóirí (stargazers) of our past who depended on birds, trees, animals, and markers on land and sea for signs of weather change.

Explore the other titles in the list

Asking For It

Louise O'Neill

Fia and the Last Snow Deer

Eilish Fisher, illustrated by Dermot Flynn

Girls Who Slay Monsters

Ellen Ryan, illustrated by Shona Shirley Macdonald

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

John Boyne

The Secret Scripture

Sebastian Barry

The Spinning Heart

Donal Ryan

Trespasses

Louise Kennedy

Unravelling Oliver

Liz Nugent

Holding

Graham Norton

Normal People

Sally Rooney

Room

Emma Donoghue

Small Things Like These

Claire Keegan

The Bee Sting

Paul Murray

The Importance of Being Aisling

Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen

We Don’t Know Ourselves

Fintan O'Toole

A Ghost in the Throat

Doireann Ní Ghríofa

Country Girl

Edna O’Brien

Poor

Katriona O’Sullivan