Contemporary Irish-Language Fiction

This chapter provides a critical survey of the contemporary Irish-language novel, beginning with the contrasting fortunes of 1980s novelists such as Alan Titley and Séamas Mac Annaidh as they sought to escape the shadow of the literary giant that was Máirtín Ó Cadhain. It goes on to discuss significant developments in the story of the novel in Irish, providing critical assessments of the contribution of individual novelists such as Pádraig Standún and Pádraig Ó Cíobháin; examining dominant fictional strands and trends, including historical fiction, transnational fiction and the Gaeilge noir subgenre; and highlighting areas of scarcity or deficiency, such as the surprising dearth of successful comic novels in Irish and the paucity of female Irish-language novelists, with Éilís Ní Dhuibhne and Anna Heussaff as rare exceptions.