Tag: Book reviews

About writing, Book reviews

My own personal book awards of 2025

by clareodea5 Comments on My own personal book awards of 2025
Fribourg at dawn, taken on my morning commute

I’ve decided to run a last-minute mini book awards with a jury of one (me) selecting from the books I’ve read in 2025. Please take a seat and see if you agree with the line-up of winners. We (the royal we) have nine categories this year.

And the Slightly Disappointing Award goes to Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout. It’s only disappointing because I’ve loved everything of hers so far, and this novel I only liked. One too many walks with Bob and Lucy not quite saying what they’re thinking. The murder side plot was good and I wonder if I might have rushed it. Elizabeth Strout needs to be savoured. Might revisit.

Katriona O’Sullivan’s searingly honest memoir Poor wins in the non-fiction category with the award for Best Social Commentary. As the daughter of addicts, Katriona O’Sullivan endured desperate poverty and neglect in her childhood. If anyone doesn’t believe in systemic disadvantage yet, Poor will set them straight.

Also in non-fiction, there is an award for the Strangest / Most Original Book, which goes to The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. This is the experience of a woman who was hit with a sudden and severe debilitating illness that left her almost unable to move. She found solace in the company of a snail accidentally carried into her sick room on a plant. I felt there was a little too much snail and not enough human in the book but still plenty of wonderful reflections on both conditions.

The Best Novel Set in Dublin Award goes to The Coroner’s Daughter by Andrew Hughes. The novel brings to life the dank, disturbing and oppressive Dublin of 1816 and introduced me to the wonderfully spirited and inquisitive character of Abigail Lawless.

Back to fiction, and the Rich Historical Fiction Award goes to Charlotte by Martina Devlin, an evocative and fascinating tale woven around Charlotte Brontë’s little-known Irish connections. Charlotte spent her honeymoon in Ireland with her Irish husband the year before she died tragically of pregnancy complications in 1855, the last of six Brontë siblings to die young.

The award for the Most Clichéd and Occasionally Sexist Nonsense book goes to Love is Blind by William Boyd. I was given a 10-CD set (don’t laugh) of this book that someone had lying around and I listened to it mostly on car journeys. It could also win an award for the most research dumping about the piano tuning profession, if there was such an award. Having said all that, it was entertaining.

To be more positive, may I present Three Days in June by Anne Tyler which walks away with the Easiest Read Award. Featuring a socially awkward mother of the bride navigating the days before and after her daughter’s wedding, it’s amusing, touching and insightful in equal measures.

The Most Beautiful Story Award of 2025 is still Clear by Carys Davies, which I read in August and felt would be my book of the year. Set mainly on a remote Scottish island in the 1840s, it’s exquisite in every way.  Ivar, the sole occupant of the island, leads a life of quiet isolation until the day he finds a man unconscious on the beach below the cliffs. 

After listening to Colm Tóibín being brilliant about Henry James on The Secret Lives of Books podcast, his book A Long Winter caught my eye in Fribourg cantonal library.  It’s a long short story that’s just been given the Claire Keegan treatment by being sold as a book. And we are all the better for it! A Long Winter wins the Enchanting Sense of Place Award. In an afterword, Tóibín explains the background to the tragic story of a woman’s disappearance, which he heard during his time living in that region of Spain.

I hope you fall under the spell of one or more of these award-winning titles. Have you read any of them already? And what was your favourite read of 2025?

About Switzerland, About writing, Book reviews

Summer reading, autumn happenings (save the date!)

by clareodea4 Comments on Summer reading, autumn happenings (save the date!)

Two high points of my childhood summers were berry picking and wild swimming. Those two free pleasures are still part of my life, and I managed to do both today – pick blackberries in the forest and go for a dip in my local river. With a good book thrown in, the perfect Sunday.

I’ve read more than usual this summer, helped by the fact that I have access to an endless supply of books at my day job working for a book distributor. I’ve just finished The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue, a real page-turner about a train hurtling towards disaster in 1895.

The novel is based on the true story of a derailment and, to create her characters, Emma Donoghue used the biographies of real people who were either on the train or could well have been. She says she drew on more than 40 articles about the accident in 26 publications. To find out more about the individual lives, especially uncelebrated ones, she “ransacked the wonderful hoard of French bureaucracy filae.com”.  The result of all this – apart from a gripping, richly-imagined story – is that you find out what became of the main characters in later life.  

Recent favourite reads include Tell Me What I Am by Una Mannion, Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers, Love is Blind by William Boyd, Audition by Katie Kitamura and the unforgettable Clear by Carys Davies.

Meanwhile preparations for the publication of my new novel Before the Leaves Fall are continuing and it’s time to save the date(s)! The Swiss launch of the book will take place in Stauffacher Bookshop in Bern on Thursday, October 9th at 8pm. The event is being generously sponsored by the Irish Embassy. Full details at this link.

Two weeks later in Dublin, the Gutter Bookshop in Cow’s Lane will host the Irish launch on Thursday, October 23rd, time tbc. All are welcome. I’m extremely grateful to both bookshops, who have a great record in supporting authors.

In between, I’ll be at the Frankfurt Book Fair for work and will hopefully steal a moment to present my book to Literature Ireland, which publishes a catalogue of translation-worthy new Irish fiction titles. I’d love to see the book translated into the Swiss languages as Voting Day was.

Before all that, September has some literary treats in store. I’ll be attending the annual Le livre sur les quais festival in Morges on the weekend of September 5th-7th. The full English programme has been published and it includes Natasha Brown, Alan Hollinghurst, Caroline Bishop, Mark O’Connell, Claire Massud and more. I’m very pleased to be interviewing Padraig Rooney about his biography of Annemarie Schwarzenbach, one of the most interesting Swiss women of the 20th century. That event is at 1pm on Saturday 6th in Hotel La Couronne.

At the end of September, the wonderful Jonathan Coe is coming to Geneva as a guest of the Société de Lecture. I will be interviewing him in the elegant salon jaune on Monday, September 29th. There’s lots to talk about in his latest cleverly-plotted, satirical, dark-yet-funny novel, The Proof of My Innocence.

With all that hopping around, I hope I get to see some of you over the next couple of months. For now, let’s enjoy this summer feeling and any good books we find along the way.

About Switzerland, About writing

Before the Leaves Fall gets a botanical cover

by clareodea11 Comments on Before the Leaves Fall gets a botanical cover
Cover design by Becky Fish

One of the milestones of publishing a book is the moment when the cover design is revealed. I’m delighted to share the cover of Before the Leaves Fall with you today, along with the first endorsements the novel has received from authors Liz Nugent, Annie Lyons, Anne Griffin and Martina Devlin.

These amazing authors all gave their support unstintingly and I appreciate their generosity hugely. So here are the quotes, which I hope will whet your appetite for October.

‘This is a beautifully written study of Ruedi and Margrit, loosely connected by their past, bonding over a life changing decision causing both parties to reflect on their lives and relationships without sentimentality. The short length of the novel lends itself perfectly to the life expectancy of Margrit. Profoundly moving, I loved this book.’ — Liz Nugent, author of Strange Sally Diamond

‘A beautifully written story of unlikely friendship and the choices we face as we reach the end of our lives. Profound, poignant and refreshingly honest, this is very much a novel for our times.’ — Annie Lyons, author of The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysette 

Before The Leaves Fall once again shows O’Dea as a competent writer, unafraid to examine the relevant and vital issues of ordinary lives in Switzerland. The power of self-determination shines through in this touching read.’ — Anne Griffin, author of The Island of Longing

‘A poignant account of the lost boy trapped inside an old man, and his chance reconnection with a woman who touched his life when hers is almost played out. Told with compassion, wisdom and insight, it considers how death can offer a new perspective on life. It stayed with me long after I reached the end.’ — Martina Devlin, author of The House Where It Happened and Charlotte.

This evening I sent off my feedback on the proofreader’s changes, which basically involved me agreeing with everything she marked up, bowing to her superior knowledge about hyphenation and the difference between ‘on to’ and ‘onto’. The next time I see the manuscript will be between the covers of a printed book! If you’re stuck for reading material in the meantime, have a look at the websites of the four talented writers above and take your pick.

I can’t wait for October. But I also want to enjoy this time before, when I can dream big about the book, hoping that it gets widely read and positively received, and that people understand – as Liz, Annie, Anne and Martina have done – that it comes from a good place.  

About writing, Book reviews

How does author platform work?

by clareodea10 Comments on How does author platform work?

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How much do you know about your favourite authors? Do you know what they are currently working on, their likes and dislikes, how they spend their free time? If I think of my favourite living writers, I have only the vaguest idea of biographical details or personality. When did we stop thinking this was normal?

The current wisdom on author platform suggests that the author inspires people to buy the book. What this means is that authors are under pressure to hook readers using their online presence. This is supposed to be a liberating development but the danger is it can enslave authors to the idea that they should Always Be Closing.

I once heard indie publishing guru Jane Friedman give a talk about platform where she said that people need to hear about a book an estimated eight times before they buy it. Does this mean authors have to make a lot of noise for their books to get noticed? It seems the lower down you are on the success chain, the less likely it is anyone else will make the noise for you, so yes.

As a reader, I don’t feel much curiosity about the person behind the book. I don’t feel the need to get to know them. If they are good I just want to keep reading their work. But most of my favourite authors have a high profile. Would I forget about them if their names didn’t keep popping up in the media?

In fact, I do forget about them for long stretches of time until I hear a radio interview, or see a festival programme, a tweet, a review. So these reminders are important, even for established writers. The author website is important too. We need to make it easy for our work to be discovered. After that it’s a question of narrowing down the best tools from a host of possibilities, including Facebook, Twitter, blogging, interviews, Goodreads, blog tours, giveaways, Youtube videos, podcasts, not to mention giving talks in person. But it’s impossible to do everything. It’s better to focus on the activities you are most comfortable with.

To approach the idea of platform from the other direction, a few days ago, I was asked for some book recommendations by a friend who has moved to a remote location. Two of the three books I recommended – The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce and The Return by Hisham Matar were written by authors I had met at Le Livre sur les Quais festival at Morges last month. A literary festival or is a great source of inspiration but they don’t come along that often.

The other place I get ideas from is bookshops, and I am always glad to see my own book so well displayed in Swiss book shops. The other day I bought the new John le Carré at Dublin airport, which would not be a typical choice for me. And I’m enjoying it so far. Another book I’d like to recommend is Petina Gappah’s collection of short stories set in Zimbabwe, An Elegy for Easterly.

Book blogs, like A Life in Books , are also a great source of reviews and ideas. Friends also recommend books and I receive books as presents, most recently Roddy Doyle’s new novel Smile. Apart from that, media coverage plays a big role in the search for new titles, but that’s usually when it’s an author whose work I already know and like. Because I have no access to newspapers in English, the main places I come across reviews or book talk are Facebook and Twitter, so that kind of link sharing also comes into play.

It’s been one year since my book, The Naked Swiss: A Nation Behind 10 Myths, was published, I haven’t figured out all the mysteries of the author platform yet. But thinking about it certainly helps.  What do you, as a reader or an author, find most useful or appealing in authors’ online activity? Do you have any dos and don’ts to share?