Bibliofemme Bookclub An Irish Bookclub

Anyone looking for a bite-sized taste of the best of Ireland’s contemporary women writers should check out this charity publishing project. Maeve Binchy, Cecelia Ahern, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Sheila O’Flanagan, Patricia Scanlan, Deirdre Purcell, Pauline McLynn, Kate Thompson, Emma Donoghue and thirty more familiar and not so familiar names have joined with editor Ciara Considine of Hodder Headline Ireland and Joseph Hoban of New Island to produce a book of short stories in aid of the victims of the December 2004 tsunami.

The writers, who come from a range of publishing houses, have all donated their time, their royalties and their stories to the project. Those who agreed to take part were given one common theme to work with: moments of change.

Newcomers like Breda Wall Ryan hold their own beside some of Ireland’s bestsellers and the stories range from Dwyer Hickey’s heart-breaking glimpse of life in an old folk’s home to Ahern’s well-paced tale of mid-twenties rat-race fatigue. Pauline McLynn takes her regular heroine, private eye Leo Street, to a school reunion while Emma Donoghue explores the unfolding consequences of one seemingly innocuous lie.

From births and deaths to every kind of moment in between, the book’s genesis and its theme do seem to have pushed most of the writers to moments of poignancy (Thompson writes about a final goodbye, Binchy about misunderstood friendship) but there are one or two laughs to be had along the way. It’s an eclectic but very appealing mix, the kind of book you can dip in and out of and one that would make a great present.

Published by the Irish Book Publishers Association, it costs €10 with the full cover price going directly to tsunami affected regions via the Irish charity GOAL (details of where to buy it are on www.moments.ie). One of its biggest selling points is that so many good names have been gathered together, offering a good measure of the strength of fiction being produced by Irish women writers right now. Lots of these authors have had their novels reviewed by the femmes so those of you tempted by their short story offerings in Moments can check out what else they’ve written here. But make sure you do your bit for charity and pick up a copy of Moments first!