Chairperson: Paul Perry

Themes of family, community, and the struggle between past and present link two new novels — one marking the return of an Irish literary icon; the other, the hotly anticipated follow-up to one of the most highly praised literary debuts of recent years.

Novelist, poet, dramatist, Dermot Healy has been described by Roddy Doyle as ‘Ireland’s greatest living writer’. Now, after an eleven year hiatus, the celebrated author of A Goat’s Song, The Bend for Home and Sudden Times returns with his aptly titled fourth novel, Long Time, No See, a lyrical coming-of- age tale set in contemporary Ireland.

Set during the seismic events that shaped the Tripoli of his childhood, Hisham Matar’s sensational debut In the Country of Men was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His new novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance, closely mirrors the trauma of his own youth, as young Cairo boy Nuri faces the sudden and violent fact of his father’s abduction.