From native tongues to the narrative of memory, the ways we speak to ourselves and each other reveal so much about who we are and the words and worlds that shape us.

In Water over Stones, readers follow the intertwined lives of the residents of one small village in Basque Country. From the 1970s to the mid 2010s, its central characters learn to speak to each other and for themselves as the wheel of time and technology turns ever on.

In Madame Lazare, a young girl and a young man dump a body from a boat into Galway Bay. More than seventy years later, an old woman in the grips of dementia begins speaking a language she should not know, leaving her granddaughter to piece together the puzzle of her life.

Silence and speech are at the heart of both Atxaga’s and McDonnagháin’s most recent works; and though both were originally written in minority languages – Basque and Irish – the themes explored within are immediately recognisable. Together, these two prolific writers examine the many languages we learn to speak in a lifetime.

Bernardo Atxaga is the award-winning writer of Obabakoak, Lone Man, The Accordionist’s Son, Seven Houses in France, and Nevada Days among others. He has received numerous prizes including the Basque Prize, the Marsh Award (2015), and the Ostana Prize. His work has been adapted into film and theatre and is available in 36 languages.

Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin is a writer and editor whose work has been recognised by numerous awards including the Gradam Uí Shúilleabháin Award and three consecutive IFTA Awards. His novel, Madame Lazare, won an Irish Book Award and a Special Mention from the 2022 jury of the European Union Prize for Literature. His work has been translated to a range of languages.

Presented in partnership with Instituto Cervantes Dublin.