Upcoming Events

Dublin City Libraries are delighted to welcome readers to the Laureate for Irish Fiction The Art of Reading book club at 7pm on Thursday 1st September at Ballymun Library.

The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Colm Tóibín, will be in conversation with writer Una Mannion about The Ante-Room by Kate O’Brien.

Copies of The Ante-Room are available to borrow in advance from Ballymun Library (email ballymunlibrary@dublincity.ie) or can be reserved from any public library.

Tea/coffee and refreshments will be served afterwards.

In describing his idea for this book club series Colm Tóibín said: “Our experience of reading became more intense and more essential during the lockdown. Although reading is mainly done in silence and when alone, it includes a sense of community, an idea of sharing. Readers want to talk about the books they like, to think about the internal workings of a novel or a story, and exchange ideas on books, all to enrich the experience of reading. Reading, as much as writing, is an art. It requires a creative response to the text. No books matters unless someone is reading it. The purpose of the Art of Reading Book Club is to deepen the idea of a community of readers and to recognize the vitality and excitement in the act of reading and thinking about books.”

‘This novel is written with great intensity, being set over a time period of three days in which the focus is on the entire life of a single family, all the secrets and treacheries coming into the open. Time and character are dealt with in this book with sharp insight, masterful precision.

This event will be recorded and available for viewing on the Arts Council and Libraries Ireland website on the last Thursday in September.

Previous Art of Reading Book Club events can be viewed now online on The Arts Council of Ireland You Tube channel.

The Art of Reading Book Club is an initiative of the Arts Council and the Laureate for Irish Fiction, in partnership with Libraries Ireland.