I’ve always written stories, ever since I was a child. During my time at Celtic Tiger I wrote a lot of short stories – I was planning on doing a comprehensive collection of short stories on the subject because I thought no one was writing about it.

In hindsight, I was wrong. I completed my doctorate and then concentrated on my academic career until about 2014. Writing took a back seat.

But around 2014 I started writing a novel, which became my first book. The failing heartwhich was published in 2018.

How did Dedalus Ireland come about?

Dedalus Books is a small, independent publisher with a keen interest in European fiction, particularly translations, and has done some great work in this field.

They have published many authors from Europe who would not have appeared in English, people like Joris-Karl Huysmans, Gustav Meyrink and Vladimir Sharov.

As an author, I was initially attracted to Dedalus because I was increasingly influenced by the European experimental tradition.

Dedalus published my first book and I built a relationship with them. They came to Ireland more frequently and published my second and third books.

Then they started publishing people like David Butler, who publishes under the name Dara Kavanagh. That’s how they came up with the idea of ​​developing an Irish imprint, especially as there is a tremendous energy and talent in Irish fiction at the moment.

What is the aim of Dedalus Ireland?

The imprint is still in its infancy, but we want to build a list with its own character that stands out clearly from the mass of Dedalus Books.

Literary fiction with a European accent, with a penchant for boldness and innovation. This can be anything from historical or realistic fiction to more avant-garde experimental fiction.

I would also like to develop Irish language fiction that has not yet been translated into English. These are not necessarily new books, as Dedalus Books often publishes rediscovered fiction.

I’m also interested in anthologies. I think that in Irish literature, which is very much in the tradition of realism, there is scope for more experimental and avant-garde literature.

What do you like most about your job?

Immerse myself in other people’s imaginations and lose myself in my own.

Kazuo Ishiguro said that stories are “about one person saying to another, ‘This is how it feels to me… does it feel like this to you?'”

This sentence sums up what fiction is.

You can read a book that is completely made up, and if it is a good book, regardless of what style it is written in and what genre it falls into, if it has the ring of truth, then the book speaks to you.

What do you like least about it?

Probably because I don’t have enough time to read as much as I would like. I feel like I’m chronically under-read, even though I know that’s not the case in comparison. I don’t think that feeling will ever go away, because there are just more and more books.

Three books for a desert island

Samuel Beckett’s trilogy Strictly speaking, these are three books, but together they represent the high point of Beckett’s fiction and one of the greatest achievements of European modernism.

They are incisive, uncomfortable, frustrating and exhilarating, funny in Beckett’s mix of high intellect and downright vulgarity, and full of truth about existence in its maddening absurdity. The final pages of The Nameless One contain some of the greatest prose of the 20th century.

Iris Murdoch, The sea, the sea was once described in The Guardian as “sublime, ridiculous, difficult, superficial, profound and specious.” It is all of those things, but it is always entertaining and engaging.

Every time I read it, I am fascinated and horrified by Charles Arrowby’s mistakes in his reasonable efforts to win back his first love, Hartley.

Michel de Montaigne The complete essays are profound without being pompous. It covers philosophy, literature, culture, politics, society and the human body.

He was often his own subject, but he was never selfish and always honest about his personal shortcomings and mistakes. He always reminded us that life is finite and everyone has their own limitations.