Most Popular Books by Roddy Doyle

Struggling to come to terms with the end of her beloved Granny''s life while her Granny resists letting go, cheeky 12-year-old Dublin schoolgirl Mary O''Hara is drawn into a fantastical adventure by the ghost of her great-grandmother, who shares insights into the lives of four generations of women in their family. 25,000 first printing.

Two old friends reconnect in Dublin for a dramatic, revealing evening of drinking and storytelling in this winning new novel from the author of the Booker Prize winning Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha One summer''s evening, two men meet up in a Dublin restaurant. Drinking pals back in their youth, now married and with grown up children, their lives have taken seemingly similar paths. But Joe has a secret he needs to tell Davy, and Davy has a sorrow he wants to keep from Joe. Both are not the men they used to be. Joe has left his wife and family for another woman, Jessica. Davy knows her too, or should - she was the girl of their dreams four decades earlier, the girl with the cello in George''s pub. As Joe''s story unfolds across Dublin - pint after pint, pub after pub - so too do the memories of what eventually drove Davy from Ireland: his first encounter with Faye, the lively woman who would become his wife; his father''s somber disapproval; the pained spaces left behind when a parent dies. As the two friends try to reconcile their versions of the past over the course of one night, Love offers a delightfully comic yet moving portrait of the many forms love can take throughout our lives.

It''s the summer holidays and Rover is busy searching for poo. He works for The Gigglers, small furry creatures who make sure grown-ups are nice to their kids. If they aren''t, they get the Giggler Treatment - a smelly, squishy present on the end of their shoe, which is where Rover comes in. But Rover and his nephew Messi (who is actually very tidy) are distracted from their job by a Big Fat Baby (B.F.B) who''s fallen out of her Granny''s backpack. It''s time for Rover to find the B.F.B, even if it means chasing a postie all over the city, following an aeroplane to Casablanca and leaving the Gigglers with a poo shortage... The fourth title in the madly funny Giggler series and illustrated throughout by Chris Judge, this is Booker Prize-winning Roddy Doyle at his hilarious, brilliant best.

“I think he was dead before I shot him.” With these auspicious words begins a murder mystery so utterly unlike any other that it took fifteen of Ireland’s finest writers (working well below their peak) to bring it to its unlikely conclusion. The plot involves a mad search for the only manuscript of an unpublished novel by James Joyce, and features a stellar cast—including a sadistic sergeant with the unlikely name of Andy Andrews and the unforgettable mob boss Mrs. Bloom, a woman “who had tried everything but drew the line at honesty.” Raucous, raunchy, gratuitously violent and completely hilarious,Yeats Is Dead!is a diabolically entertaining mulligan stew of a novel. James Joyce would be proud.

THE PHENOMENAL MEMOIR OF A NATIONAL TREASURE After Kellie Harrington won gold at the Tokyo Olympics, the Irish public recognized her as not merely a sporting hero, but a deeply inspirational human being. Now, Kellie tells the story of her unlikely journey to the top, and of the many obstacles and setbacks she overcame along the way. Growing up in Dublin''s north inner city, Kellie was in danger of going down the wrong path in life before she discovered boxing. The local boxing club was all-male and initially wouldn''t let her join, but she persisted. She was not an overnight success. For years she struggled in international competition. At times she felt unsupported by the national boxing set-up. More than once she considered giving up the sport. But some spark of ambition and love for boxing kept her going, and gradually she made herself world class. Writing with Roddy Doyle, the award-winning author of The Commitments, Kellie tells the story of her unlikely rise to greatness and her continuing dedication to living a normal life - which has involved remaining an amateur boxer and keeping the job she loves, at a Dublin psychiatric hospital. She shares exceptionally vivid and revealing details about being a woman in a historically male sport, and about how she manages her body and her mind. It is a vastly inspiring look inside the life and psychology of a woman who is both brilliantly ordinary and utterly exceptional.

With contributions by: William Boyd, Candice Carty-Williams, Imtiaz Dharker, Roddy Doyle, Pico Iyer, Robert Macfarlane, Andy Miller, Jackie Morris, Jan Morris, Sisonke Msimang, Dina Nayeri, Chigozie Obioma, Michael Ondaatje, David Pilling, Max Porter, Philip Pullman, Alice Pung, Jancis Robinson, S.F.Said, Madeleine Thien, Salley Vickers, John Wood and Markus Zusak ''This story, like so many stories, begins with a gift. The gift, like so many gifts, was a book...'' So begins the essay by Robert Macfarlane that inspired this collection. In this cornucopia of an anthology, you will find essays by some of the world''s most beloved novelists, nonfiction writers, essayists and poets. ''You will see books taking flight in flocks, migrating around the world, landing in people''s hearts and changing them for a day or a year or a lifetime. ''You will see books sparking wonder or anger; throwing open windows into other languages, other cultures, other minds; causing people to fall in love or to fight for what is right. ''And more than anything, over and over again, you will see books and words being given, received and read - and in turn prompting further generosity.'' Published to coincide with the 20th anniversary of global literacy non-profit, Room to Read, The Gifts of Reading forms inspiring, unforgettable, irresistible proof of the power and necessity of books and reading. Inspired by Robert Macfarlane Curated by Jennie Orchard

Roddy Doyle s''est d''abord fait connaître en France par la publication d''un roman, Paddy Clarke ha ha ha (10/18, n° 2784), récit d''une enfance dublinoise qui lui valut le Booker Prize. Voici maintenant sa fameuse trilogie de Barrytown - The Commitments, The Snapper et The Van -, saga joyeusement animée par les membres de la famille Rabitte que le succès des films d''Alan Parker et de Stephen Frears a déjà rendue célèbre. Pour Robert Louit (Magazine littéraire), " on prendra grand plaisir à découvrir les romans de Doyle, car leur qualité principale tient à ce trait permanent de la littérature irlandaise : un don inépuisable de la conversation qui saisit la première occasion pour surenchérir jusqu''à prendre des proportions épiques. La trilogie de Barrytown, c''est comme une soirée bien arrosée au pub : on s''y croirait, et on en commanderait bien une autre ".

Paddy Clarke grandit à Dublin. A la fin des années 60, il a dix ans et son petit monde, entre l''école et le terrain de jeux, son amitié avec Kevin, le football, et son attachement pour son petit frère, est rempli de rêves et de mystères. Paddy est à l''âge où l''on cherche son identité. Son plus grand désir, toutefois, serait de voir ses parents cesser de se disputer, mais son père finit par partir et Paddy doit affronter les moqueries dans la cour de récréation : "Paddy Clarke n''a plus de papa, ha, ha, ha !" Paddy, heureusement, possède des trésors d''énergie et d''intelligence pour détourner l''angoisse : au milieu de la mésentente qui brise son foyer va surgir en lui la ferme détermination de survivre. Avec son mélange "irlandais" de tendresse et d''humour, Roddy Doyle a su rendre l''enfance dans toute sa réalité : le temps des décisions brutales, des grands chagrins inconsolables et des infinies possibilités...

Pour le deuxième mouvement de sa trilogie de Barrytown, Roddy Doyle nous entraîne au côté de Sharon Rabbitte. Un personnage hors du commun que cette jeunesse de dix-neuf ans qui exerce le métier de vendeuse ; célibataire, elle est néanmoins enceinte d''un futur marmot et refuse de révéler l''identité du père. Les suppositions vont bon train : dans l''univers des Rabbitte, personne n''a la langue dans sa poche. Au rang des candidats, on trouve un père de famille qui n''est pas de première jeunesse et dont le charme n''est pas la qualité la plus évidente ! Mais Jimmy Senior, en bon chef de clan, va prendre les choses en main... Sous la plume talentueuse de l''auteur de Ha ! Ha ! Ha !, c''est bien l''humour irlandais qui, une fois de plus la vedette du livre.