We’re thrilled to share news of even more award recognition for Joseph O’Connor as his novel SHADOWPLAY is longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. Now in its 26th year, the annual award, which is sponsored by Dublin City Council, celebrates works of fiction published in English between January 2019 and June 2020.
49 novels were nominated from libraries around the world. SHADOWPLAY has been longlisted alongside authors such as Elif Shafak, Bernardine Evaristo, Colum McCann, Heather Morris and Brit Bennett. The shortlist will be announced on March 25th and the winner revealed by the Lord Mayor of Dublin at the first day of the International Literature Festival Dublin on May 20th.
Published in 2019 to rapturous reviews, SHADOWPLAY was a Sunday Times novel of the year and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize, the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year prize, the Dalkey Novel of the Year award, and the Costa Novel Prize. SHADOWPLAY won Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards.
Richard and Judy picked SHADOWPLAY as one of their Christmas Book Club selections, with Richard Madeley recently describing it as ‘the best novel that I’ve read in the last twenty years… Probably the best of all the Book Club choices we’ve made since 2004. It’s fantastic… Amazing.’
The excellent audio edition, read by Barry McGovern and Anna Chancellor, was released by W.F. Howes in the UK and Dreamscape in the US. Europa published in the US, film rights are optioned and translation rights have been sold in eight translation markets so far: China (Shanghai Elegant People), Croatia (Fraktura), France (Editions Rivages), Hungary (Helikon), Italy (Guanda), Serbia (Carobna Knjiga), Sweden (Natur Och Kultur) and Turkey (Sia Kitap).The French edition was shortlisted for the Jean Monnet Prize.
1878: The Lyceum Theatre, London. Three extraordinary people begin their life together, a life that will be full of drama, transformation, passionate and painful devotion to art and to one another. Henry Irving, the Chief, is the volcanic leading man and impresario; Ellen Terry is the most lauded and desired actress of her generation, outspoken and generous of heart; and ever following along behind them in the shadows is the unremarkable theatre manager, Bram Stoker.
Fresh from life in Dublin as a clerk, Bram may seem the least colourful of the trio, but he is wrestling with dark demons in a new city, in a new marriage, and with his own literary aspirations. As he walks the London streets at night, streets haunted by the Ripper and the gossip which swirls around his friend Oscar Wilde, he finds new inspiration. But the Chief is determined that nothing will get in the way of his manager’s devotion to the Lyceum and to himself. And both men are enchanted by the beauty and boldness of the elusive Ellen.
SHADOWPLAY explores the complexities of love that stands dangerously outside social convention, the restlessness of creativity, and the experiences that led to DRACULA, the most iconic supernatural tale of all time.
You can listen to a dramatisation of another of Joseph’s bestselling novels, STAR OF THE SEA, on BBC Radio 4.
Praise for Joseph O’Connor and SHADOWPLAY:
‘There are few living writers who can take us back in time so assuredly, with such sensual density, through such gorgeous sentences. Joseph O’Connor is a wonder, and SHADOWPLAY is a triumph.’ – Peter Carey
‘As much as this is a hugely entertaining book about the grand scope of friendship and love, it is also, movingly – at times, agonisingly – a story of transience, loss and true loyalty.’ – Sadie Jones, The Guardian
‘Joseph O’Connor is a very great artist and storyteller. The quotient of enjoyment in his extraordinary new novel is stupendous.’ – Sebastian Barry
‘Wonderful. The writing is beautiful.’ – Derek Jacobi
‘A hugely entertaining and atmospheric novel, one can almost smell the greasepaint.’ – Deborah Moggach
‘Seriously fascinating’ – Colm Tóibín, The Observer
‘A virtuoso act of literary ventriloquism. SHADOWPLAY is funny, smart, tender, wise and written with inch-perfect precision.’ – Colum McCann
‘A great writer performing Olympian literary storytelling.’ — Bob Geldof
About the Author
Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin. His books include nine novels: COWBOYS AND INDIANS (Whitbread Prize shortlist), DESPERADOES, THE SALESMAN, INISHOWEN, STAR OF THE SEA (American Library Association Award, Irish Post Award for Fiction, France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, Prix Madeleine Zepter for European novel of the year), REDEMPTION FALLS, GHOST LIGHT (Dublin One City One Book Novel 2011), THE THRILL OF IT ALL and SHADOWPLAY. His work has been published in forty languages. He received the 2012 Irish PEN Award for outstanding achievement in literature and in 2014 he was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.
Visit Joseph O’Connor’s website.