On our fifth session of 2026, Wednesday 14 October, we’ll talk about the work of Irish author Claire Keegan.
Hailed as the voice of a generation and a modern-day Charles Dickens, Zadie Smith is an astute chronicler of our times. But which of her works of fiction should you read first?
North Books’ alternative book club edges away from the usual convention of only inviting readers to discuss a single book (though this can happen from time to time) to opening up our evenings to a more general celebration of our shared love of storytelling and the people behind the words on the page.
Thoughts in the pot so far include asking readers to choose any work from a given writer to encourage a wider discussion of the author’s creativity and output. We are also interested in dedicated genre events as well as putting poets, journalists, songwriters and historians in the mix. Fiction, non-fiction and everything in between.
It’s a book club but it’s an evolving one. It will be one thing one month and something else the next time we meet – always, though, it will belong to the group and it will be shaped by you. The only common denominator will be words – and a conversation about them.
JOIN US
Participation is free if the book is purchased in advance from North Books at a 10% discount. Otherwise it is £5 on the night. To join the group, please email Jules on jules@northbooks.co.uk. We now offer audio books via Libro FM.
You are welcome to come along to the first session for free to see if it’s your cup of tea but please register your interest in the bookshop.
THE WORK
The April session of Hay Reads.
Claire Keegan’s works of fiction are internationally acclaimed and have been translated into thirty languages. Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Walk the Blue Fields won the Edge Hill Prize for the finest collection of stories published in the British Isles. Foster won the Davy Byrnes Award—then the world’s richest prize for a short story. Small Things Like These, a New York Times Best Book of the 21st Century, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Rathbones Folio Prize and won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and The Kerry Prize for Irish Novel of the Year. So Late in the Day was longlisted for the Story Prize. She was awarded Woman of the Year for Literature in Ireland (2022), Author of the Year (2023), the Seamus Heaney Award for Arts and Letters, and the Siegfried Lenz Award (2024).
Please let either Peter (who runs Hay Reads) or Jules in the bookshop know if you are planning on attending so we can welcome you - new members always welcome although we try an limit attendees to 14.
Pop in for more guidance if you would like a steer on which title to read.