An Post Irish Book Awards Shortlist 2025
The shortlist for the An Post Irish Book Awards 2025 features a diverse mix of exceptional writing from new and established writers across a range of categories. Authors on the shortlist include John Kelly, Nicola Pierce, Leo Varadkar, Matt Cooper, Donal Skehan, Conor Murray, Sarah Corbett Lynch, Sarah Maria Griffin, Rose Keating, Steve Cavanagh, Elaine Feeney, Anna Carey, Paddy Donnelly, John Burke, Jenny Ireland, Micheál Ó Conghaile and many, many more…Winners will be announced at awards ceremony in the Convention Centre, Dublin on Thursday 27th November.
TV programme announcing the overall ‘An Post Irish Book of the Year’ winner will be broadcast on RTÉ ONE on Thursday, December 11th.
The full shortlist is as follows:
Best Irish-published Book of the Year
- An Irish Word a Day - Hector Ó hEochagáin (Gill Books)
- For and against a united Ireland - Fintan O'Toole and Sam McBride (Royal Irish Academy)
- Midwinter: A Journey Through a Season - Michael Harding (Hachette Books Ireland)
- Ninety-Nine Words for Rain (and One for Sun) - Manchán Magan, Megan Luddy (Gill Books)
- Sunday Miscellany - A Selection 2023-2025 - Sarah Binchy (New Island Books)
- The GAA Covered - John Kelly (Gill Books)
- Burn Them Out!: A History of Fascism and the Far Right in England - Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc (Head of Zeus / Apollo)
- Charlie Vs Garret: The rivalry that shaped modern Ireland - Eoin O'Malley (Eriu)
- Great Irish Wives - Nicola Pierce (The O'Brien Press)
- Mapping the Island - Joseph Brady & Paul Ferguson (Birlinn)
- The Dublin Pub - A Social and Cultural History - Donal Fallon (New Island Books)
- Wrong Women - Caroline West (Eriu)
- A Time for Truth: My Father Jason and My Search for Justice and Healing - Sarah Corbett Lynch (Hachette Books Ireland)
- Miriam: Life, Work, Everything - Miriam O'Callaghan (Sandycove)
- She Died Young: A Life in Fragments - Brenda Fricker (Head of Zeus – Apollo)
- Speaking My Mind: The Autobiography - Leo Varadkar (Sandycove)
- Still - A Memoir - Julia Kelly (New Island Books)
- The Bass Player - Surviving the Miami Showband Massacre - Stephen Travers, Yvonne Watterson, Alexandra Orton (New Island Books)
- Catastrophe: Nakba II - Fintan Drury (Merrion Press)
- Deadly Silence: A Sister’s Battle to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of Clodagh and Her Sons by Alan Hawe - Jacqueline Connolly, written with Kathryn Rogers (Hachette Books Ireland)
- Dynasty: Scandals, triumph, turmoil and succession at the heart of Dunnes Stores - Matt Cooper (Eriu)
- The Bailout Babies, Adam Maguire -(Gill Books)
- The Lie of the Land: A Gameplan for Ireland in the Climate Crisis - John Gibbons (Sandycove)
- The Secret Life of Leinster House - Gavan Reilly - (Gill Books)
Lifestyle Book of the Year
- Donal's Real Time Recipes - Donal Skehan (Yellow Kite)
- Good Together: Delicious Recipes for the Moments that Matter, Una Leonard (Hachette Books Ireland)
- Light Up - Miriam Hussey (Gill Books)
- Make & Freeze - Lou Robbie (Penguin / Michael Joseph)
- Sophie's Swaps, Sophie Morris (Gill Books)
- The Walking Effect, Karl Henry (Gill Books)
- Cloud Nine - My Life In Rugby - Conor Murray, Tommy Conlon, (Reach Sport)
- Sports Book of the Year, Heart on My Sleeve - Andrew Porter, foreword by Richie Sadlier, (Eriu)
- Ó Sé, Marc Ó Sé with Adrian Russell, also Listener's choice (Gill Books)
- The Changing Game: The Past, Present and Future of Football - Martin O'Neill, Joey D'Urso, (Hachette / Headline)
- The Only Way I Know: The Autobiography, Andy Farrell (Sandycove)
- The Race, David Gillick, with Cathal Dennehy (Gill Books)
- A Time for Truth: My Father Jason and My Search for Justice and Healing - Sarah Corbett Lynch (Hachette Books Ireland)
- Intensive Care: True Stories of Healing, Heartache and Hope from Inside Irish Children's Medicine, Dr Suzanne Crowe (Hachette Books Ireland)
- Nesting - Roisin O'Donnell (Scribner, Simon & Schuster)
- Old Parish: Notes on Hurling - Ciarán Murphy (Sandycove)
- The Gaeilge Guide: Spark your connection to the Irish language and legacy - Mollie Guidera (Hachette Books Ireland)
- The Ghosts of Rome - Joseph O'Connor (Harvill)
- Colm Toibin - MacMillan
- Donal Ryan - Transworld
- Elaine Feeney - Harvill
- John Boyne -Transworld
- Roisin O'Donnell - Simon & Schuster
- Sarah Maria Griffin - Titan
- Every One Still Here - Liadan Ní Chuinn (The Stinging Fly Press/Granta)
- Show Me Where It Hurts - Claire Gleeson (Sceptre)
- Frogs For Watchdogs - Seán Farrell (New Island Books)
- Oddbody - Rose Keating (Canongate)
- Sugartown - Caragh Maxwell (Oneworld)
- The Compound - Aisling Rawle (The Borough Press / HarperCollins)
- The Wardrobe Department - Elaine Garvey (Canongate)
- Thirst Trap - Gráinne O'Hare (Pan Macmillan / Picador)
- Burn After Reading - Catherine Ryan Howard (Bantam/Transworld PRH)
- Fair Play, Louise Hegarty - (Pan Macmillan / Picador)
- It Should Have Been You - Andrea Mara (Bantam/Transworld PRH)
- The Killing Sense - Sam Blake (Atlantic Books / Corvus)
- The Secret Room - Jane Casey (Hemlock / HarperCollins)
- The Stolen Child - Carmel Harrington (Headline Review)
- The Stranger Inside - Amanda Cassidy (Canelo Crime)
- Two Kinds Of Stranger - Steve Cavanagh (Headline)
- Conversation with the Sea, Hugo Hamilton (Hachette Books Ireland)
- Fun and Games - John Patrick McHugh ( Fourth Estate / HarperCollins)
- Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way - Elaine Feeney (Harvill)
- Nesting - Roisin O'Donnell (Scribner, Simon & Schuster)
- The Benefactors - Wendy Erskine (Sceptre)
- The Boy from the Sea - Garrett Carr (Pan Macmillan / Picador)
- The Ghosts of Rome - Joseph O'Connor (Harvill)
- Venetian Vespers - John Banville (Faber)
- Before Dorothy - Hazel Gaynor (HarperFiction / HarperCollins)
- City Girls Forever - Patricia Scanlan (Simon & Schuster UK Adult Fiction)
- Moving On - Roisin Meaney - (Hachette Books Ireland)
- Our Song - Anna Carey - (Hachette Books Ireland)
- Paper Heart - Cecelia Ahern (HarperFiction / HarperCollins)
- Releasing 10 - Chloe Walsh (Little, Brown Book Group / Piatkus)
- Such a Good Couple - Sophie White (Hachette Books Ireland)
- The In-Laws, Sinéad Moriarty (Sandycove)
- An Fia sa Choill - Sadhbh Devlin, Anastasia Melynkova (Futa Fata)
- Badger Books - Paddy Donnelly (The O'Brien Press)
- Don’t Trust Fish - Neil Sharpson , Dan Santat (US) (Andersen Press)
- Ellora McGee Trainee Banshee - Sinéad O'Hart (Gill Books)
- Letters to a Monster - Patricia Forde, Sarah Warburton (Bloomsbury Children's Books)
- Once I Was a Tree - Eoin McLaughlin, Guilherme Karsten (illustrator), Nosy Crow
- Penguin TV - Niamh Sharkey, Owen Churcher (Gill Books)
- Run Home, Little Fox - Tom McCaughren & Erika McGann, Illustrated by Shannon Bergin, (The O'Brien Press)
- Animalopedia - John Burke, Kathi Burke (Gill Books)
- Conn of the Dead - Dave Rudden, Ali Al Amine (Gill Books)
- Granny National - Rachael Blackmore, With Rachel Pierce (Sandycove)
- Milly McCarthy and the Haunted House HullaBOOloo - Leona Forde, Karen Harte (Gill Books)
- Nina Peanut: Epic World Tour Era - Sarah Bowie (Scholastic)
- The Doomsday Club - Kevin Moran (The O'Brien Press)
- Any Way You Slice It - Méabh McDonnell (The O'Brien Press)
- Matched Up - Jenny Ireland (Penguin)
- My Name is Jodie Jones - Emma Shevah (David Fickling Books)
- Solo – Gráinne O'Brien (Little Island Books)
- Skipshock - Caroline O'Donoghue (Walker Books)
- The Rebel and the Rose - Catherine Doyle (Simon & Schuster)
- An Bhlaosc sa mBois - Micheál Ó Conghaile (Cló Iar-Chonnacht)
- Bódléar - Darach Ó Scolaí (Leabhar Breac)
- Fiche - Colm Ó Ceallacháin (Leabhar Breac)
- Scéalta Nollag - Alan Titley (LeabhairCOMHAR)
New Irish Writing Best Short Story
- Carnations – Lorraine Courtney
- Glass Splinters – Kieran Marsh
- Breathing Lessons – Sylvia Caldwell
- That Little Tent of Blue – Mary Shovelin
- All the Birch Trees Were Waving – Pádhraic Quinn
- A Constriction – Eamon McGuinness
New Irish Writing Best Poetry
- ‘There’s never a crowd at the poetry section’ – Vincent Barton
- ‘The Tragedy of It’ – Kevin O’Farrell
- ‘The Crows’ and ‘The Leaf’ - Paul McMahon
- ‘Minimum Wage’, ‘South-Eastern Wind’ and ‘Midnight Oil’ – Joanne McCarthy
- ‘Rowan’s furniture. Dublin 1965’ and ‘Carousel’ – Nollaig Rowan
- · ‘I Remember Stealing’ and ‘The Visitor’ – Bronagh Mallon
An Post Bookshop of the Year
- Antonia’s Bookstore, Trim, Co. Meath
- Chapters Bookstore, Dublin 1
- Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Co. Galway
- The Company of Books, Ranelagh, Dublin 6
- Liber Bookshop, Sligo Town
- The Maynooth Bookshop, Co. Kildare
