Joseph O’Connor’s ‘incredibly moving piece of work,’ THE THRILL OF IT ALL, has been shortlisted for The Eason Novel of the Year 2014, in the Irish Book Awards. The other nominees for the Novel of the Year are ACADEMY STREET by Mary Costello, A HISTORY OF LONELINESS by John Boyne, FROM OUT OF THE CITY by John Kelly, NORA WEBSTER by Colm Tóibin and THE BONE CLOCKS by David Mitchell. The winner is selected by popular vote, here, and will be awarded on 26 November.
O’Connor is also on the longlist for the first ever Laureate for Irish Fiction. Alongside 33 other authors, Joseph O’Connor is being considered for the three year position which carries a €150,000 bursary and will see the Laureate teach at University College, Dublin and New York University. Other nominees include Booker prize winners John Banville and Roddy Doyle, and last year’s Bailey’s Women's Prize winner Eimear McBride.
THE THRILL OF IT ALL narrates the life-cycle of a band, The Ships, from a first friendship between two students at Luton College in the early 1980s, to their rise on the global stage and beyond. In essence, it’s the tale of four people trapped in the dysfunctional family of a band by the whirlpool of their addiction to music.
Joe’s novels have won prizes including the American Library Association Award, the Irish Poet Award for Fiction, and the Prix Millepages. In 2012 Joe was awarded the Irish PEN Award for outstanding achievement in literature.
THE THRILL OF IT ALL was recently Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime, and was nominated for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize. It is out now in paperback from Harvill Secker.
Praise for THE THRILL OF IT ALL:
‘Paragraph after paragraph of brilliance.’ – Guardian
‘What makes this novel such a compulsive read is its extraordinary emotional intensity... an incredibly moving piece of work.' - Irish Sunday Independent
‘O'Connor brilliantly evokes the 1980s...and superbly evokes the struggles of a naive and yet determined band to survive on the road… Don't just buy the book: petition the publishers to release the soundtrack.' – Mail On Sunday Five Star Review