This month, The Eason Book Club reviewed 'Villa America' by Liza Klaussman. A novel that tells the story of two socialites living in grandeur before the insertion of a fictional character.

Pat Kenny was joined in studio by the rest of the book club namely: Rory Cowan of Mrs Brown's Boys, singer-songwriter Brian Kennedy and former Fianna Fáil TD, Mary O'Rourke.

The full podcast of the show can be found here:

Rory said that while he found it challenging to get into at first it became a pleasure to read.

"It took me a while to get into it, but when I did get into it, I loved it. The odd thing about it is the only character that's fictional was the one character that I thought was my favourite," Rory said.

Rory said that the fictional character, Owen Chambers, freed up Klaussman to no end.

"When you're writing about them, it's very defined on what you can write about, but when you make up a character you can take it wherever you like and that's why I thought Owen was the most interesting character."

While Mary found it frustrating to avoid spoilers, she was overwhelmed by the grandeur involved in the book.

"The money they we were able to spend on creating this wonderful home called Villa America, and that's really what the book is about. And all the people who came visiting for dinner who came and went and came and went and names that we would all recognize."

Brian believed that the scope of the book played a huge role in its success and its engaging storytelling.

"What I really loved was that we met all these characters when they were children first and certainly at the beginning of the 1900s, especially Sarah. What I loved (about Sarah) was that she never could have guessed that her life was going to end up the complete antithesis of her childhood," Brian said.

Villa America is on sale now from Easons and all good bookstores which is available in hardback and paperback published by MacMillan. 

After some debate between the club, they have chosen 'The Green Road' by Anne Enright. Described as a darkly, glinting novel set on Ireland's Atlantic Coast, it is a story of fracture and family selfishness and compassion. A book about the gaps in the human heart and how we learn to fill them.

The Eason Book Club will return on The Pat Kenny Show on Thursday, May 28.