Local author shortlisted for 15000 novel of the year award

Ballinasloe-based author Nuala Ní Chonchúir has been shortlisted for the prestigious Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year award for her latest novel The Closet of Savage Mementos.

Ms Ní Chonchúir's novel was published last year by New Island.

The shortlist of five books also includes City of Dis by David Butler, Blue is the Night by Eoin McNamee, The Visitors by Patrick O’Keeffe and The Diary of Mary Travers by Eibhear Walshe.

Adjudicators Eileen Battersby and Gerald Dawe will select the winner, who will be presented with a cheque for €15,000 at the Opening Night of Listowel Writers’ Week on May 27 next.

The Closet of Savage Mementos is a novel about grief, betrayal by loved ones, motherhood, adoption, post-natal depression and the grip of past events.

It is partially based on the author’s own experiences and was described in the Sunday Times as ‘...her finest novel yet’ and in the The Sunday Independent as ‘raw, beautiful and compelling, a “must read”.’

In other good news for Nuala, this summer Penguin USA, Penguin Canada and Sandstone Press (UK) will publish her third novel, Miss Emily, about the poet Emily Dickinson and her Irish maid. Miss Emily has already garnered rapturous advance praise and has been optioned for film.