“When I die Dublin will be written in my heart.”
Dublin is a city brimming with charm, history, culture and literary tradition, proving to be a source of inspiration for writers and creatives from around the world. From the cobbled streets of Temple Bar to the iconic River Liffey, Ireland’s capital city makes for the perfect backdrop for tales that delve into the human spirit in all of its complexity. Whether it’s the city’s lively social circles, turbulent history or the quiet beauty in its hidden corners, we here at What We Reading thought we would curate some of our favourite books set in Dublin! Whether you’re a seasoned traveller or contemplating your first trip to the Emerald Isle, these stories all capture the essence of Dublin perfectly!
Ulysses – James Joyce
First up on our list of the best Dublin books is James Joyce’s lauded classic, Ulysses. First serialised in The Little Review between March 1918 and December 1920, and published in full in February 1922 (coinciding with Joyce’s fortieth birthday), it has been hailed as one of the defining works of modernist literature and arguably captures the streets, sounds and spirit of Dublin like no other book has ever done.
Joyce’s novel chronicles the experiences of three Dubliners over the span of one day. The book parallels Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, with the characters of Leopold Bloom, Molly Bloom, and Stephen Dedalus, who mirror Oysseys, Penelope, and Telemachus. Themes ranging from antisemitism, Catholicism, sexuality, British rule in Ireland, and Irish nationalism are all explored through a stream of consciousness, careful structuring and experimental prose, making it an invaluable work for capturing the context of Dublin in the early twentieth century.
The Commitments (The Barrytown Trilogy #1) – Roddy Doyle
One of the most iconic musical films, beloved depictions and books set in Dublin ever written, Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments is the story of an unemployed young man named Jimmy Rabbitte who is approached by his high school friends to make a successful band in the Northside of Dublin. Jimmy agrees, but only on the condition that he is allowed to make wholesale changes to the group and build it in his own vision.
He renames the band ‘The Commitments’ and changes the musical direction to the ‘Dublin-Soul Revolution’. Placing an ad in the local paper, he assembles a mismatched group of eccentric characters led by the mysterious stranger Jimmy ‘The Lips’ Fagan and embarks on giving the residents of Dublin the soul music they’ve been waiting for.
In The Woods (Dublin Murder Squad #1) – Tana French
The first entry in her crime thriller series, Dublin Murder Squad, Tana French’s In the Woods opens with dusk approaching in a small suburb in the summer of 1984. Yet, on this warm summer’s evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children, clinging to a tree in terror, wearing blood-soaked trainers and unable to recall a single detail of what had just happened.
Two decades on, the found boy, Rob Ryan has become a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad. When a twelve-year-old girl is discovered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox find themselves delving into a case eerily similar to the mystery from twenty years ago. With only fragments of his long-buried memories to guide him, Rob has the opportunity to unearth the mystery of the case in front of him, as well as the secrets from his own shadowy past.
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The Pull Of The Stars – Emma Donoghue
Nominated for Best Historical Fiction in the 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards, Emma Donoghue delivers a poignant book set in Dublin in The Pull of the Stars. Set in an Ireland ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works tirelessly in an understaffed hospital in the city centre. There, expectant mothers have come down with a terrifying new flu and are quarantined together.
Julia’s fiercely regimented world is soon upended by the arrival of two outsiders, Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumoured rebel on the run from the police, and a young volunteer named Bridie Sweeney. Over three days in the darkness and intensity of the cramped ward, these women change their lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this pandemic but shepherd new life in this strange new world.
Strumpet City – James Plunkett
Set in Dublin during the famous 1913 Lockout industrial dispute, James Plunkett’s Strumpet City is a panoramic novel of urban city life. Readers are taken on a tour up the social ladder from the miseries of the tenements to the cultivated bourgeois Bradshaws. The story’s central protagonist, Fitz, is a hard-working, loyal and abused trade unionist and just one member of a colourful cast of characters that help bring Dublin’s working class to life and evoke the feel of a city being on the cusp of transformation.
What makes Strumpet City one of the most acclaimed books set in Dublin is its raw realism in how it depicts traumatic historical events. From the squalor and degradation of the slums to the indifference shown by the city’s clergymen and middle classes, it is an incredibly powerful depiction of the city’s history and inequality.
The Ginger Man – J.P. Donleavy
First published in Paris back in 1955 and originally banned in both the United States and Ireland, J.P. Donleavy’s debut novel, The Ginger Man, introduces readers to Sebastian Dangerfield, a wealthy disaffected American student. Studying law at Trinity College, the book chronicles Dangerfield’s misadventures, as well as his troubled relationships with his English wife and daughter.
The Ginger Man has come to be one of the most important works for recognising the shifting values and changes across society at the time. Even today, it remains an exhilarating and breathless read on the back of Donleavy’s use of shifting tenses, switches between first and third person and frequent use of verbless sentences.
The Liar’s Girl – Catherine Ryan Howard
Dublin’s notorious Canal Killer, Will Hurley is ten years into a lifelong stretch behind bars when the body of a young woman is discovered in the Grand Canal. The police suspect they are dealing with a copycat killer. Nevertheless, they still turn to Will for help. He claims that he has all the information the detectives need, but is only prepared to give it to one person – the woman he was romantically involved with at the time he was committing his horrific crimes.
Alison Smith has spent the past decade living abroad, doing all she can to put her shattered life in Ireland behind her. However, when she gets a request from Dublin urging her to help prevent another series of senseless murders, she finds herself being pulled back to face the past, as well as the man she’s worked so hard to forget. Dark, gripping and suspenseful, Catherine Ryan Howard’s The Liar’s Girl is undoubtedly one of the best mystery thriller stories set in Dublin.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
