We are delighted that Joseph O’Connor has been shortlisted for the Library Association of Ireland Author of the Year Award at the 2023 An Post Irish Book Awards. His latest novel, MY FATHER’S HOUSE, has been shortlisted for the Eason Novel of the Year Award. The An Post Irish Book Awards are a set of industry-recognition awards set up by a coalition of Irish booksellers to celebrate and promote Irish writing, with winners voted for by readers. Since 2011, an Irish Book Awards TV show has been aired on RTÉ.
Readers can vote for their favourites here: https://www.irishbookawards.ie/vote/. Voting closes at 5pm on 9th November 2023.
Winners will be announced on 22nd November 2023 at The Convention Centre Dublin with the An Post Irish Book of the Year TV show airing on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player on 6th December.
MY FATHER’S HOUSE was published in the UK and Ireland by Harvill Secker and in the US by Europa Editions in January 2023. It flew straight to Number One in the Irish bestseller charts where it stayed for four consecutive weeks. It was also featured on BBC Radio 4 as Book at Bedtime. The novel is the first in the Rome Escape Line Trilogy.
In September 1943, German forces occupy Rome. SS officer Paul Hauptmann rules with terror. An Irish priest, Hugh O'Flaherty, dedicates himself to helping those escaping from the Nazis. His home is Vatican City, a neutral, independent country within Rome where the occupiers hold no sway. He gathers a team to set up an Escape Line. But Hauptmann's net begins closing in and the need for a terrifyingly audacious mission grows critical. By Christmas, it's too late to turn back.
Based on a true story, MY FATHER’S HOUSE is a powerful thriller from a master of historical fiction. It is an unforgettable novel of love, sacrifice and what it means to be human in the most extreme circumstances.
MY FATHER’S HOUSE was also recently chosen as part of the Irish Arts Council’s Read Mór project. To celebrate Culture Night (21st September 2023), the Arts Council gifted thousands of books by Irish and Irish based writers to patients in seven hospitals. The aim of the project is to gift the joy of reading and to bring Culture Night to those who cannot be part of the national event. Curated by three Laureates, MY FATHER’S HOUSE was selected along with 29 other titles and authors.
MY FATHER’S HOUSE will be published in paperback in the UK in February 2024 and in April 2024 in the US. Rights are also sold in Brazil, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden.
About Joseph O’Connor
Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin, where he still lives. MY FATHER’S HOUSE is his tenth novel: he is also the author of film scripts, radio and stage plays, two collections of short stories, and several bestselling works of non-fiction.
2022 was the 20th anniversary of Joseph O’Connor’s novel STAR OF THE SEA which was an international bestseller, selling more than a million copies in the UK alone and being published in 38 languages. It won France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, the Irish Post Award for Fiction, the Nielsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, an American Library Association Award, the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Hall of Fame Award, and the Prix Litteraire Zepter for European Novel of the Year.
He holds an honorary Doctorate in Literature from University College Dublin and received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature in 2012. He is the Inaugural Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.
Praise for MY FATHER’S HOUSE
‘A spectacular, thrilling novel… MY FATHER’S HOUSE celebrates triumphant against-the-odds camaraderie. It would require a present-day Puccini to do operatic justice to its tremendous tale.’ – Peter Kemp, The Sunday Times
‘A literary thriller of the highest order. The incarnation of O’Flaherty, the Irish Oskar Schindler, is sublime. What often elevates a writer is compassion, and O’Connor has it in spades – paying tribute to the courage of those who resist tyranny. 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 Observer
‘Joseph O’Connor’s new novel MY FATHERS HOUSE is a riveting tale about the power of community in the face of unfathomable evil… a seamless blend of fact and fiction by a master of the genre; a brisk polyphonic narrative that brings the heroism of ordinary people thrillingly to life... O’Connor is a visualist who revels in evocative cityscapes of a Rome under siege… readers will be too caught up in O’Connor’s writing, the delight in watching a plan come together, the tension of wondering whether it will succeed… MY FATHER’S HOUSE, the first in a trilogy, is a novel full of deft characterisation and knowledge, not just the historical facts, but the broader – grander? – wisdom to be found in excavating the past.’ – Sarah Gilmartin, The Irish Times
‘Riveting… Through wonderfully developed and varied characters, O’Connor conveys both the painful privations of life during wartime and the nobility of the Choir’s goals, and the unfolding of O’Flaherty’s marathon of undercover subterfuges that lay the groundwork for their mission is a storytelling tour de force. This is top-drawer WWII fiction.’ – Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
‘A gripping World War II-set drama featuring the unlikeliest of heroes, one whom the reader roots for every step of the way… His cat-and-mouse game with Hauptmann is expertly plotted; his desperate mission through the streets of Rome is brilliantly paced. It is hard not to be captivated by his presence throughout this hugely satisfying book, from its explosive opening to its bittersweet end.’ – Malcolm Forbes, The Washington Post
‘If the story were told in typical thriller style, emphasizing action over language, it would still be good, but O’Connor’s phrasings are a special joy… A deeply emotional read. And when the action is over, the coda could water an atheist’s eye.’ – Kirkus Reviews
‘A striking piece of historical fiction… Telling the story from multiple perspectives, O'Connor succeeds in integrating into the suspenseful plot numerous narrative voices that intersect class, gender, nationality and religion. In the process, he effectively explores the varied motivations of those who joined The Choir and their differing experiences… this novel's strength is its vivid imagery and intimate detail. With its daring hero and theme of pan-European collaboration, O'Connor's addition to the crowded corpus of Second World War fiction is immersive and thrilling.’ – Adam Ahmed-Mekky, Literary Review