Bódléar

Bódléar: 136 pp; hardback, 978-1-913814-65-6

The Oireachtas Prize 2024
The Ó Súilleabháin Award 2025
An Post Irish Books Award 2025

In a village on the west coast of Ireland, every summer, the local poet is sent south to Munster to represent his village at the great gathering of poets. And each year, he composes a new poem for the occasion and, more importantly, he brings home new poems and songs. The people of the village love the songs he brings back to them, and organize a big night every year to welcome him home.

“Rhymeless and toneless poets”

But this year, the poet has returned in a foul humour. From now on, he will compose “new poetry, truer poetry!” he says. But when his new “rhymeless and toneless” poems are heard, the locals are horrified….

A celebration of our special relationship with France

Bódléar is a novel with a light comic touch, a romance that deals with the changes in life and the ways in which people deal with them.

“This is a beautiful and miraculous work in which a marriage is made between literature and humanity, eternal truth and fleeting history. The author brings Irish and French together harmoniously, and manages to give a few digs to today’s poets along the way, which is not a bad thing at all.” — Aifric Mac Aodha

“A classic of the genre”

“A creative and imaginative novel that takes the reader back to Gaelic Ireland of the eighteenth century (or so we are led to believe!) echoeing not only the Irish poetry of that period, but the classic novels of the twentieth century as well. The language is exquisitely rich and the story moves forward in short, concise chapters, each one more enjoyable than the previous. Bódléar will be considered a classic of the genre, not just in the future, but immediately.” — Breandán Ó Cróinín

“What a gem!”

“What a gem! An affectionately gentle satire of the Irish poetic scene during one creatively fluid 19^th-century year, the story focuses on a Maigue poet and schoolteacher who goes on a trip to France and returns with camembert, a cafetiere, ‘Fleurs du Mal’, and a mission to convert the local traditionalists to la modernité. Whimsical, hilarious, and subtly learned, it’s absolutely delightful!” — Éilis Ní Dhuibhne, The Irish Times

“A beautiful style of prose with an unrivalled richness of language”

“From the very first line, readers are immersed in the most vivid setting of a fictional village in the west of Ireland “crochta idir sliabh agus cladach” (hung between mountain and shore). The writing is poetic both in content and style and the painting of this rural village is stunning throughout: “trí bhuille sciatháin ó mhullach sléibhe go híochtar trá’ (three wing beats from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the beach). Ó Scolaí has a beautiful style of prose with an unrivalled richness of language. The village is living and breathing, almost like another character in the book …. The characterisation is exceptional, not only from witty and revealing conversations, but from the specific vocabulary and terminology to describe particular character.” Úna Nic Cárthaigh, Books Ireland

Read the review in Books Ireland Magazine

Read an excerpt from the nove