Joseph O'Neill: Trouble and strife

In advance of his appearance at West Cork literary festival, novelist Joseph O’Neill tells Ellie O’Byrne about his new book of short stories, and the democratic emergency in the US.

Joseph O’Neill’s latest novel is on hold: he’s been writing it for four years. The writer is best known for his critically acclaimed post-9/11 novel Netherland, and 2014’s Man Booker longlisted The Dog. Yet his latest work-in-progress is slow going, he says. He’s sitting in a hotel lobby in Cork, the city of his birth.