The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 21: 'My Father's House' by Joseph O'Connor

The Arts Council Podcast

The October Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Joseph O’Connor about his novel ‘My Father’s House’ “My Father’s House is set in Nazi occupied Rome in the middle of the Second World War. Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty who, using the Vatican as his headquarters, sets about smuggling thousands of Jews and Allied prisoners out of Italy to safety. The Financial Times writes that ‘the diverse ventriloquism of O’Connor’s novel evokes a city in peril with wonderful vitality.” — Colm Tóibín Joseph O’Connor’s fiction is published in 40 languages. Star of the Sea has sold more than a million copies. Shadowplay won the An Post Irish Novel of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Costa. Other books include Cowboys and Indians (Whitbread Prize shortlist), Desperadoes, The Salesman, Inishowen, Redemption Falls, Ghost Light (Dublin One City One Book 2011), The Thrill of it All, two short story collections, several stage plays and film scripts and six nonfiction volumes. His CD The Drivetime Diaries reached number one in the Irish charts. In 2011, he was elected to Aosdána. Awards include the Prix Zepter for European Novel of the Year, France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, an American Library Association Award, the Nielsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, the 2022 American Ireland Funds AWB Vincent Literary Award and the Bram Stoker Gold Medal for Cultural Achievement. His novel, My Father’s House, was published in January 2023. He is Frank McCourt Chair of Creative Writing at UL. Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/