The Eason Book Club's 'Book of the Month' for May, The Green Road by Anne Enright, was reviewed on The Pat Kenny Show last week.
The panel was a member short with Brian Kennedy away in Australia leaving the reviewing up to Mary O'Rourke and Rory Cowan who gave The Green Road an excellent review.
Anne Enright's novel is a darkly glinting story set on Ireland's Atlantic coast It tells a story of fracture and family, selfishness and compassion.
The book follows Rosaleen Madigan, whose children leave the west of Ireland for lives they never could have imagined in Dublin, New York and various third-world towns.
Rosaleen's decision to sell the family home sees the children return to the West of Ireland to spend Christmas under one roof for the first time in years.
Former Fianna Fáil TD, Mary O'Rourke, was extremely impressed by the book of the month for May that was chosen by Rory.
'She is really a very central character, Rosaleen, and I think the words of Anne Enright, she's spare, she's sparse but she kind of assaults you with her words, she makes you read them. She makes you not leave a line unread and I think it's a marvelous exercise,' Mary said.
Fellow panelist and Mrs. Brown's Boys Star, Rory Cowan, agreed with Mary and seemed pleased with his choice of book for the month.
'I absolutely adored it and the strange thing about it is if I saw it in a bookshop it would have passed me by. I'm at an age now where I like reading biographies or history but oh God am I glad I picked up this book, it's stunning,' Rory said.
Rory continued, saying that he really appreciated the freedom the book gives you to make assumptions of things that aren't explained.
'It jumped from 1980 to 1991 and the son who said he was going to be a priest then next thing you see him he's in New York and he's starting off as bisexual and then he turns out gay and we've no idea how he got there. This Anne Enright, she makes you think about things,' Rory said.
Anne Enright's The Green Road is available from Eason's bookstore for €17.99 in paperback or €12.99 in eBook form.
It was Mary's turn to choose the Book of the Month for June and out of a decision between The Negotiator by George J. Mitchell, Whispering Hope by Nancy Costello, Tender by Belinda McKeon and All involved by Ryan Gattis. Mary decided upon the latter, Ryan Gattis' All Involved.
All Involved is described as a searing novel from Ryan Gattis that is a sprawling, engrossing epic that uses the LA Riots of 1992 as its backdrop.
You can listen to the full podcast of last week's show below:
