Based on an extraordinary true story, My Father’s House is a powerful literary thriller from a master of historical fiction.

‘Beautifully crafted, his razor-sharp dialogue is to be savoured, and he employs dark humour to great effect. The plot twists keep on coming until the novel’s coda, where a final joyful conceit is revealed’. Lucy Popescu, The Guardian.

Joseph O’Connor will be in conversation with Writer Mary Morrissy.

Joseph O’Connor, born in Dublin, is novelist, screenwriter, playwright and broadcaster. He is the author of nine novels including Star of the Sea, Ghost Light (Dublin One City One Book novel 2011) and Shadowplay (June 2019). He has also written two collections of short stories, True Believers and Where Have You Been?, several warmly received stage plays, six non-fiction collections and hundreds of radio diaries. His novel Star of the Sea sold more than a million copies, becoming a UK Sunday Times number one bestseller. Among his awards are the Prix Zepter for European Novel of the Year, France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, an American Library Association Award and the Irish Pen Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature. His work has been translated into forty languages. In 2014 he was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.

A frequent and acclaimed broadcaster, Joseph has worked with many musicians, including Paul Brady, The Chieftains, Camille O’Sullivan, Mel Mercier, Martin Hayes, Iarla Ó Lionáird, composer Brian Byrne and Scullion. He has performed spoken-word pieces at major venues including the National Concert Hall, New York’s Lincoln Centre, the Barbican Centre, London, and the Royal Albert Hall. He is currently working on his next novel entitled My Father’s House, inspired by the real-life story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, who saved many allied prisoners and Jewish Romans from the Nazis.

Mary Morrissy is an award-winning Irish novelist and short story writer, author of three novels, Mother of Pearl, The Pretender and The Rising of Bella Casey, and two collections of short stories, A Lazy Eye and Prosperity Drive. With her twenty years’ experience of teaching creative writing at university level in the US and Ireland, she now offers one-to-one creative mentoring and editing and appraisal services for writers. She also has thirty years’ experience as a journalist, having worked as a reporter, feature writer and sub-editor on three of Ireland’s national dailies. Morrissy is an elected member of Aosdána, Ireland’s academy of artists and writers.