Books review:  Was Kilroy’s return too ‘mundane’ for the Booker judges?

Marjorie Brennan’s books of the year, include Claire Kilroy’s return and a belated reading of Maggie Shipstead’s 2021 novel

Claire Kilroy returned to fiction writing after a ten-year-plus hiatus, her novel Soldier Sailor, was a very surprising omission from the Booker Prize lists. Picture: Nick Bradshaw

While it was gratifying to see Ireland so well-represented on the Booker lists, with Paul Lynch’s win for Prophet Song a validation of our thriving literary scene, I found Claire Kilroy’s omission from the reckoning a little mystifying. 

For me,  Soldier Sailor , the Dublin writer’s first novel in more than a decade, was a triumph, her reappearance a timely reminder of how she is up there with Ireland’s great literary talents.