The word 'Cúirt' illuminated the stone walls of the Mick Lally Theatre on Tuesday, April 21, and excited chatter bounced around the room full of those waiting to hear two powerhouse authors in conversation.
Mary Costello, with her biographical fiction, A Beautiful Loan, and Edel Coffey with her crime/thriller, In Glass Houses, took centre stage on red couches to a packed theatre.
Hailing from Galway and living in Kinvara, Costello's fifth book explores the dynamic of withholding information to create tension and drama, with a strong theme of 'inner living'. She described how we live mostly in our heads, in our inner lives, inhabiting inner landscapes, and this is where she uses her pen to explore how these thoughts or memories often are linked to shame and hurt.
"That's what interests me most; that's where the most drama happens," she said. "The hidden secret lives that we all live. If you think about it, it's where we mostly exist."
The two authors had a great rapport and found a common thread through their love of secrets and concealment, with Edel, originally from Dublin but living in Galway, finding it fascinating to examine the link between how we present ourselves and shame.
She finds it interesting to explore how people live with secrets, how they come to terms with their own morality, and what face they present to the world: "I think in a country like ours, secrets are huge. From the smallest thing, as a kid, when somebody called to your house, and your mother saying, run upstairs and close all the bedroom doors... I am very interested in concealment, because so many of us present a face to the world."
After an hour-long conversation, Coffey wanted to leave the crowd with one sentiment: that she had created a "great, really evil novel".
