Failte! Welcome 👋🏻
Welcome to Leabhar Linn 📚, the Irish-language book club!
Each month (hopefully 👀) I will recommend an Irish-language book to read.
"Leabhar Linn" is an Irish language pun. "Labhair" is the verb to speak, so "Labhair linn" means "Speak to us", while the word Leabharlann means Library. Get it?! Proud of that one! 😂
📖 Book 1 - Heartstopper by Alice Osema, translated by Eoin Mc Evoy
The first book I want to recommend is the Irish-language translation of the graphic novel, 'Heartstopper', the story the Netflix TV show of the same name is based on.
The story is about two young boys who fall in love. As a graphic novel, the story is very easy to follow with very accessible Irish. The few words I had to look up were good additions to my lexicon! A nice, easy and enjoyable start to my campaign to read more books as Gaeilge!
I actually read this book in the hospital before and after my c-section and I found it very easy to read and hard to put down. Burned through it in a matter of hours.
Get the book from An Siopa Leabhar here.
Disclosure: N/A. I bought a copy of the book. The above link is not an affiliate link.
📖 Book 2 - Tír Bheag by Gaël Faye, translated by Antain Mac Lachlainn
The debut novel of Gaël Faye is a coming-of-age story based in a time of civil war. Set in 1992, it follows 10-year-old Gabriel as his life changes forever.
Tír Bheag is coming out on October 11th 2024. It has been translated into Irish from the original French by Antain Mac Lachlainn. I will update you on how the reading goes!
Get the book from Easons here.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of the book from publisher Barzaz. The above link is not an affiliate link.
📖 Book 3 - Madame Lazare (Audiobook) by Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin
My next book is an audiobook narrated by the author, Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin. Closleabhar is the Irish word for audiobook! (Listen book 😊)
Disclosure: I received a free copy of the audiobook from publisher Barzaz. The below link is not an affiliate link.
SiopaLeabhair.ie blurb:
Winner – An Post Irish Language Book of the Year 2021
Nominated – Gradam Uí Shúilleabháin Book of the Year, Oireachtas na Gaeilge 2021
Nominated – European Union Prize for Literature 2022
Levana has always been proud of her Jewish heritage and the generations of Jewish women who went before her. One of those women is her grandmother, Hana Lazare, who raised Levana in a traditional Jewish community in Paris. Hana’s story is one of struggle: as a child, she fled the Nazi invasion of her Northern European homeland and made her way to London. She was the only member of her family that survived the Shoah. She has never spoken a word about that other life to Levana.
But as Hana succumbs to old age and her mind becomes increasingly confused, fragments of memory emerge that surprise Levana. And as Hana unknowingly reveals more of her past, Levana finds herself questioning everything her grandmother has ever told her. The trail leads from Paris to Brussels to the Atlantic coast of Ireland, and as it does so Levana closes in on the true story of Madame Lazare’s past and the event that changed forever the course of her life.