The Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O’Connor has been chosen as the Irish Book of the Year 2025.
The novel was among six titles competing for the accolade, all of which were category winners at the recent Irish Book Awards, including Ninety-Nine Words for Rain (and One for Sun) by Manchán Magan, illustrated by Megan Luddy (Gill Books); Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell; Solo by Gráinne O’Brien; Heart on My Sleeve by Andrew Porter; and A Time for Truth: My Father Jason and My Search for Justice and Healing by Sarah Corbett Lynch.
Described by The Irish Times as an “extraordinary picture of Rome under Nazi control; brutal, chaotic, treacherous, decaying, wrecked and crumbling, and yet sometimes still bathed in glorious and unexpected light”, O’Connor’s novel is the second in the Escape Line trilogy. The first novel, My Father’s House, has sold more than 150,000 copies in English. The final novel in the series is expected to be published in early 2027.
Paul Howard, chair of the judging panel that included Madeleine Keane, Cyril McGrane, Sinéad McCorry and Sara Keating, said: “Choosing a Book of the Year was the toughest of tasks. We were given six books to read, each outstanding in their own class. As one judge said, ‘It’s like comparing the best film you ever saw with the best piece of music you ever heard.’ It took us almost four hours to come up with a winner.
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“In the end, we chose a book that we were all happy to call the Irish Book of the Year. It’s a beautiful piece of writing as well as a thrilling piece of historical fiction. In dealing with the theme of good people standing up to the evils of fascism, it has strong resonance for the times in which we are living.”
O’Connor said: “I am overjoyed, honoured and thankful for The Ghosts of Rome to win the An Post Book of the Year award. A hundred years ago this month, young Hugh O’Flaherty became a priest. He didn’t know that he and a small group of courageous women and men would save thousands of people from tyranny and fascism, but that’s what happened. When it counted, he stood up. I salute his magnificent courage and spirit of resistance.”
O’Connor is the author of 11 novels including Star of the Sea, Ghost Light and Shadowplay. His work has been translated into 40 languages and, in 2014, he was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.
