The City of Bohane author on Ireland’s radicals, escaping the internet, and why he chose to write about John Lennon
Kevin Barry’s first novel, City of Bohane, won the Impac Dublin literary award. He is also the author of two short story collections. His new novel, Beatlebone, has been shortlisted for the Goldsmiths prize. It is an imagining of John Lennon’s fraught journey to an island he owns in Ireland, his battles with creative block, primal scream therapy, and his new album, the eponymous Beatlebone.
Why did you write about John Lennon?
My initial spark of inspiration is always place. I go cycling around where I live in County Sligo, and when I passed Clew Bay I remembered that John Lennon owned one of the islands there in the 70s when it was the end of the hippie trail and there were communes everywhere. This gave me a vague idea for this novel: John is looking for his island and can’t find it. Once I had the voice it came alive. I gave John a sidekick, Cornelius the driver, who became the book’s engine. I realised then that I was writing an old-fashioned novel: Don Quixote – John is on a quest and tilting at windmills, looking at life’s questions.
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