EFACIS Roundtable Discussion: Launch of Irish Studies in Europe XIII "Great Irish Novels of the Twenty-First Century"

Sarah Joy Link, Katharina Rennhak (eds.) 
Great Irish Novels of the Twenty-First Century (2026)
What makes a “great” Irish novel in the twenty-first century, and who gets to decide? This volume brings together leading scholars of Irish literature to explore this very question. Rather than assembling a definitive canon, Great Irish Novels of the Twenty-First Century takes a more revealing approach: each contributor selects a novel they consider “great,” reflecting on the critical and cultural processes that informed their choice. The result is not a ranked list, but a conversation about literary taste and value, and the evolving role of literary criticism today. Spanning internationally acclaimed authors and lesser-known voices alike, the essays illuminate how contemporary Irish fiction renegotiates enduring concerns – history and memory, family and identity, art and imagination – while engaging with the social and political realities of twenty-first-century Ireland in aesthetically rewarding ways. At once an exploration of contemporary Irish writing and a reflection on the practice of criticism itself, this volume invites readers to reconsider what it means to call a novel “great”.