One of Ireland’s most exciting contemporary voices is Naoise Dolan, whose two novels, both centred on the navigation and exploration of relationships, have prompted comparisons with Sally Rooney. Dolan’s debut novel, translated into Swedish by Klara Lindell, carries the title Edith och Julian (Exciting Times) and follows the young Ava as she leaves Dublin to work as an English teacher in Hong Kong. There she meets Julian, a banker generous with his credit cards, as well as Edith, a lawyer who soon becomes someone to long for. Her second novel, The Happy Couple, has not yet been published in Swedish. It portrays the days leading up to a wedding, focusing on a couple whose relationship is far from uncomplicated. In addition to being a novelist, Dolan is also known for her activism. She has taken a clear public stance on Gaza and participated in the Freedom Flotilla, along with Greta Thunberg, which was stopped in its attempt to reach the war-torn region. At Littfest she will be in conversation with the author Hanna Johansson, herself a novelist and chair of the Swedish Writers’ Union’s section for fiction. The conversation is held in English.
One of the festival’s thematic threads this year is Ireland, a country where the traditions of tracing class, culture, centre and periphery run like a vital artery through its history. These tensions create unexpected points of connection with literature from northern Sweden. On Friday and Saturday the festival highlights a quartet of authors: Anne Enright, Roddy Doyle, Sebastian Barry and Naoise Dolan, each with a distinct literary voice. Together they offer a vivid cross-section of the finest writing the Ireland currently has to offer.