It is the policy of Clare County Library to actively promote the reading habit by increasing awareness of and access to material via book promotions.

The criteria used to select books for inclusion in this promotion were that the books were originally published in the first three years of the new millennium, were written by Irish authors, had received good reviews in Books Ireland and were available in paperback.

As the purpose of our promotions is to increase awareness of materials we excluded books that would already have received widespread coverage in the national media. Due to space considerations the selection was limited to one book by each author.

Books Ireland, published nine times annually, is the major source for information on, and reviews of, new books in Ireland. It is the definitive guide to all that’s Irish in the field of publishing – whether by Irish authors, Irish publishers or of general Irish interest.

Thanks to Jeremy Addis, publisher of Books Ireland, for permission to use the reviews and for his general assistance and also to the Books Ireland reviewers. The format of this promotion precluded reproducing the reviews in full.

Clare County Library also wishes to acknowledge the co-operation of the publishers who gave permission to use their book covers for this project.

We hope that this selection of the best that is available in new Irish fiction will increase awareness of the wide variety of novels and short stories being written by Irish authors at the start of this new millennium.