‘I rarely recommend a book if it doesn’t make me laugh’, Caoilinn Hughes tells Rick O’Shea about her favourite books

I’m hoping you have read Caoilinn Hughes. In the last six years, Orchid and the Wasp and The Wild Laughter established her as one of Ireland’s smartest, finest new novelists. The Alternatives is one of the books I have raved most about in 2024.

For Shelf Analysis, your first choice has a title that would immediately make me pick it up in a bookshop. Tell me about it..