Spring Festival 2025
Wed 23 April – Sun 27 April
Dia duit agus fáilte!
(Or ‘Hello and welcome’ in English)
This April, Ireland comes to Cambridge in the shape of prize-winning writers Eimear McBride and Kevin Barry, and a panel featuring debut novelists Roisín O’Donnell, Garrett Carr and Louise Hegarty. Roll up and listen to their tales of star-crossed lovers, Atlantic shores, runaway mothers and locked-room mysteries and be immersed in its storytelling at its finest.
Roisín O’Donnell, Garrett Carr & Louise Hegarty
Saturday 26 April | 12pm | Old Divinity School
Ireland has always produced powerful and inventive writers – from reinventors of the form such as James Joyce to barrier-breaking Edna O’Brien and lyrical geniuses Sebastian Barry and Colm Toibin. In recent years, a new generation of novelists has come to the fore – Sally Rooney, Paul Murrayand Colin Barrett among them. We’re delighted to play host to three of the brightest debuts of the year from the island of Ireland.
Nesting, Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision to escape from a controlling marriage, taking her young daughters on a journey of reinvention. Set against the backdrop of Dublin’s broken housing system, this is a poignant story about motherhood, independence, and finding safety in unexpected places.
The Boy from the Sea takes us to the rugged coast of Donegal, where a mysterious baby found on the beach is adopted by fisherman Ambrose. Over two decades, this story unfolds through the eyes of a tight-knit community, exploring the boy’s search for identity, the complexities of family, and the impact of place.
In Fair Play, friends gather for a murder mystery party. As the night goes on, they drink too much and play games. Relationships are forged, consolidated or frayed. Someone kisses someone they shouldn’t, someone else’s heart is broken. In the morning, everyone wakes up – except Benjamin.
This is a locked-room mystery, and everyone is a suspect. As Abigail attempts to fathom her brother’s unexpected death in a world that has been turned upside down, she begins to wonder whether perhaps the true mystery might have been his life . . .
Join us to explore the depth and diversity of Ireland’s new generation of writers, tackling themes of identity, community, and the human experience.
CLF
Selected by and in conversation with Alex Clark.
Eimear McBride | The City Changes Its Face
Sunday 27 April | 2pm | Old Divinity School
A new novel from Eimear McBride is always an event, and The City Changes Its Face is no exception – an intense, lyrical exploration of love, obsession, and the passage of time.
It’s 1995 in Camden, and inside a small flat, twenty-year-old Eily and forty-year-old Stephen exist in the fevered haze of new love—bodies tangled, sheets unmade, the city rushing past their window. But eighteen months later, everything has shifted. Love has collided with reality. Stephen’s teenage daughter has returned, and Eily has made a choice that will change everything.
Now, on a rain-drenched London night, the two lovers retrace the course of their relationship, searching for what has been lost. Can they find their way back to each other, or will the weight of unspoken emotions, buried secrets, and unmet ambitions pull them apart?
With her trademark intensity and poetic precision, McBride delivers a searing, intimate portrait of passion, jealousy, and the relentless tide of time.
CLF
In conversation with Tom Gatti
Kevin Barry | The Heart in Winter
Sunday 27 April | 6pm | Old Divinity School
Acclaimed author Kevin Barry returns with The Heart in Winter, his first novel since the Booker-longlisted Night Boat to Tangier. Set in 1891 Butte, Montana, a booming town built on copper and fuelled by vice, whiskey, and hard-living Irish immigrants, this is a dazzling tale of love, betrayal, and pursuit in the American West.
At its heart is Tom Rourke, a young poet and ballad maker—but also a drinker and a degenerate. Just as his life seems destined for ruin, he meets Polly Gillespie, the newly arrived wife of the devout mine captain Long Anthony Harrington. A lightning-strike romance ignites between them, and soon they flee westward on a stolen horse, carving out a brief, untamed idyll in the badlands of Montana and Idaho. But their escape is short-lived: a posse of deranged Cornish gunmen is closing in fast.
Join us as Kevin Barry brings his trademark lyricism, dark humour, and wild storytelling to this epic tale of doomed love, frontier violence, and the dream of freedom.
CLF
In conversation with Tom Gatti
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