Roddy Doyle
Who writes the lives, hopes, dreams, sorrows and failures of ordinary people with greater insight, empathy and humanity than Roddy Doyle? The Booker Prize-winning Dublin writer broke new ground with his much-loved first novel, 1987’s The Commitments and he’s still doing it. His new novel Smile, out this month, is his eleventh. In it, his middle-aged character Victor looks back over formative events in his life. It’s as profound, funny, sad and shocking as anything Roddy has ever written.