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Marian Keyes wins Ireland’s Popular Fiction Book of the Year

Popular Irish author nabs prize

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Popular Irish author Marian Keyes

Author Marian Keyes, 44, won Ireland’s Popular Fiction Book of the Year award in Dublin at the weekend for her novel “This Charming Man." Happily married to her English husband Tony, 45, she’s come a long way from the depression and alcoholism that marked her 20s and almost ended her life.

It’s surprising how often Marian Keyes books are called “frothy” and “light” by the critics. It makes you wonder if they’ve ever actually read them. In “This Charming Man”, her latest – and easily her best – book to date Keyes tackles rejection, infidelity, bereavement, depression, inferiority complexes and lung cancer and that’s just the first hundred pages.

There’s no question Keyes knows how to write an entertaining yarn, but look past her storytelling skills and you’ll notice that she’s not content to leave it at that. “This Charming Man” is a remarkably compelling novel about a nasty subject - domestic violence - and about the devastation it leaves in its wake. The book is also a bracing reminder of how common homegrown violence actually is.

The statistics that Keyes quotes speak for themselves: two women are killed in Britain every week by their partner or ex-partner. Domestic violence is the greatest cause of mortality there among women in the 18 to 45 age group. In America a woman is hit every second. So it’s rife in every culture but it remains hidden because the victims are often afraid to speak out.

“I was so worried that I was in over my head with this one,” Keyes told The Voice. “I was worried that I’d taken on too big a subject, but the response to the book has been so open. It’s about domestic violence but its not ranting. It’s about the women rather than the issue. I’d like us all to embrace the fact that as human beings we do things that are baffling and inexcusable but that we must still engage with them. To pretend that it doesn’t happen at all isn’t an option.”

Like fellow Irish writer Roddy Doyle, whom she blushes to be compared to, Keyes strikes a delicate balance between storytelling and social commentary. Although there’s a discreetly feminist slant to her new book, it’s not of the man-hating variety. When it comes to being slapped around, after all, it doesn’t actually matter if you’re rich or poor, male or female. Keyes point is that it’s just wrong, and that it hurts all involved.

Says Keyes: “I knew once I’d decided on the subject mater that it would be unavoidably dark, you know? But I really would like people to have moments of comic relief in it as well. So pretty much all of Lola’s storyline is comedic and I had such fun writing it.”

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