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Joseph O’Connor is a multi-award-winning writer, whose fiction has been translated into forty languages. He received the 2012 Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Literature. His latest novel - the powerful thriller My Father’s House - is based on an extraordinary true story set in Nazi-occupied Rome. A compelling novel of love, faith and sacrifice, O'Connor explores what it means to be truly human in the most extreme circumstances. My Father's House is shortlisted for Eason Novel of the Year 2023 and Joseph O'Connor is also shortlisted for Library Association of Ireland Author of the Year.
Tell us a bit about your latest novel?
It’s called My Father’s House and it’s inspired by a real person, Hugh O’Flaherty, a Catholic priest born in rural Cork and raised in Kerry, where he is greatly loved and honoured to this day. With a small group of friends and activists, he saved thousands of fugitives from the Nazis in 1940s Rome. It’s a thriller with film noir elements and a soundtrack ranging from the blues to Palestrina. I hope it’s a page-turner. As a reader, I like to be taken somewhere.
Where did the inspiration for this novel come from? What is the story behind its conception?
The first time I heard about Hugh was donkey’s years ago in Listowel. The more I researched him, the more fascinating and contemporary he came to seem. I think his story has a lot to say about now. During the Covid lockdown, he started knocking on my windows again. I sat down and started writing a thousand words a day at the kitchen table. My Father’s House is the result.
What do you hope readers will take away from your narrative?
Every novel should give two things: hope and pleasure. Also, there’s a lot of music in My Father’s House, and if that stays with readers, I’d be delighted. I’d love it to be a book you can hear.
How does it feel to be on this shortlist amongst so many other brilliant authors?
The Shortlists for the Irish Book Awards are always strong and so it’s always an honour to be included with writers whose works have touched you as a reader.
Ireland is a literary powerhouse. Why do you think this is?
One major reason is that Ireland has very engaged readers, as a glance at the bestseller’s lists any week will show. Our bookshops and libraries do a lot and have shown amazing flexibility as the ways in which we read have changed. Writing has a good presence on Irish radio and in print media and podcasting. A weekly book show on Irish television would be a good idea, given the international success of Irish writers and the increasing diversification and vividness of Irish writing. The literature department of the Arts Council does really important, intelligent, careful work with limited resources to foster writing, reading, publishing and book festivals. But all of it would mean little without the unique storytellers and wordsmiths who keep emerging. At some level, that’s a mystery, but it must be something to do with success fostering success. Then, new work shakes things up. It’s an ecosystem.
Who are your favourite Irish writers?
I love Joyce, Mary Lavin, Anthony Cronin, Eavan Boland - everyone in the pantheon of great Irish writers, except George Bernard Shaw, although even his bad writings are sometimes more interesting than other people’s good ones. Otherwise, the answer to this question depends on so many warring factors, from the mood you’re in at the time to the kind of writing you’re looking for (or trying to avoid) that day.
Some newer writers whose recent books I loved include Megan Nolan, Niamh Mulvey, Sarah Davis-Goff and Sarah Gilmartin. I’m very taken by Martin Dyar’s poetry and hope he publishes a second volume soon. At the moment, I’m reading Iris Origo, an Irish-American writer new to me until recently. Her diaries of 1940s Italy are just so beautifully evocative and perceptive, a remarkable blend of reportage and zingy storytelling.
What An Post Irish Book Awards shortlisted book is next on your to-be-read pile?
I was fortunate to read Martin Doyle’s Dirty Linen before the very final edit was completed and I’m looking forward to returning to it in published form over Christmas. It used to be said that a good reporter can’t write and a good writer can’t report, which is nonsense, as anyone living in the country of Gene Kerrigan, Mary Holland and Nell McCafferty would know. Doyle does both and you don’t notice him doing either, which for me is one test of a very good book.
Explore the Eason Novel of the Year Shortlist and Library Association of Ireland Author of the Year Shortlists here.