Actress Sarah Jessica Parker lists three Irish authors amongst her 2023 book favourites

Sarah Jessica Parker has shared an end of year round-up of 2023 must-reads to her Instagram, including Irish authors Paul Murray and Claire Keegan, as well as Northern Irish writer Michael Magee.

Sharing 13 of her favourite reads of the year, Parker emphasised the transportive quality of this year's literature, saying, "In 2023 I have travelled in books to various points in Ireland, India, Uganda, my home of NYC, across the George Washington Bridge to Vauxhall New Jersey, Indiana and Iran, an Italian village, Colorado, Oakland California and England."

"I have spent time in the very distant past and in contemporary times," she added. All courtesy of the extraordinary writers who authored the blissfully transportive and forever remembered books I have had the pleasure of holding, reading and sharing this past year..."

 

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The 58-year-old, who is best known for her role as Carrie Bradshaw in the Sex and the City franchise, is no stranger to Ireland, owning a holiday home with husband Matthew Broderick in the Donegal village of Kilcar.

Amongst Parker's favourite titles, was So Late in the Day by Wicklow-based writer Claire Keegan. A collection of three short stories navigating the entangled lives of women and men, So Late in the Day traverses love, lust, relationships, intimacy and misogyny. Having been published in The New Yorker and The Paris Review, one of Keegan's works, Foster, was adapted for film by writer/director Colm Bairéad in 2021, and released as An Cailín Ciúin in May 2022 — the first Irish-language film to be nominated for an Academy Award.

Claire Keegan.

Also included, was Belfast-based author Michael Magee's debut novel, Close to Home. The book charts the day-to-day experiences of working-class Belfast man Sean, as he readjusts to life post-university, returning home to be confronted by the same cycles of poverty, stunted masculinity, trauma, and violence as when he left — under the long, ever-present shadow cast by The Troubles.

Michael Magee. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

Likewise, Paul Murray's The Bee Sting is an incisively crafted Irish tragicomedy of farcical proportions, chronicling the dysfunctional and hapless trajectory of the well-to-do Barnes family. The book took home the An Post Book Award for Novel of the Year last month, and was also shortlisted for this year's booker prize, alongside fellow Irishman Paul Lynch, who won the esteemed literary prize for his 2023 novel Prophet Song.

Paul Murray at the An Post Irish Book Awards. Photo: Twitter/morningireland

Refusing to pick favourites, Parker praised the titles equally, recognising 2023's outstanding literary talent. "They are all glorious, radically and wonderfully different from one another, and simply share one ingredient - supremely gifted authors," she continued. "Some are important new voices, some voices you might already know and love as I do. If you’ve not read the ones currently available I’m thrilled to introduce these books and in some cases perhaps, the writers..."