Attention: Writing on Life, Art and the World

by Anne Enright

The first collection of Booker Prize-winning writer Anne Enright's non-fiction writing about culture, literature and her own life

'Anne Enright might just be Ireland’s greatest living writer' THE TIMES

'A joy to read' MAGGIE O'FARRELL

For thirty years Anne Enright has been paying casting her lucid and distinctive gaze across the world, literature and her own life, and gifting us with her precise insights.

These essays, collated from across Enright's career, take us from Dublin to Galway, Canada to Honduras. They delve into Enright’s own family history, and explore the free voices and controlled bodies of women in society and fiction. She offers new perspectives on writers including Alice Munro, Toni Morrison, James Joyce, Helen Garner and Angela Carter.

In Enright’s fiction, speech can transform, rupture, enliven and liberate. In these essays, she speaks to us directly. Electrifying, probing and exuberant, this is a defining collection from one of our most distinguished literary voices.

'One of the best essayists alive' MEGAN NOLAN, OBSERVER

'Confirms the intelligence, compassion and humour of the mind behind the novels' INDEPENDENT

'A glorious antidote to the mad, sad world' EIMEAR MCBRIDE

'So alert, so attuned, so alive' LUCY CALDWELL

Genres: Essays, Memoir, Nonfiction, Writing, Irish Literature

271 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication April 7, 2026

About the author

Anne Enright was born in Dublin, where she now lives and works. She has published three volumes of stories, one book of nonfiction, and five novels. In 2015, she was named the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction. Her novel The Gathering won the Man Booker Prize, and The Forgotten Waltz won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

Reviews

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

anne enright has such a brilliant, inquisitive, challenging, wonderful mind

[Morag Goldfinch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth 5 stars for this line alone. ' A long marriage is, in itself, a lot like Beckett'.

[Paul Lehane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whatever she writes about in these essays is always compact & considered..a gifted writer.

[Denis O'donovan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of writing from a brilliant writer - first essay on Helen Garner a highlight

[Patrick O'Donoghue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Usually, I wouldn’t be tempted to pick up a collection of essays, my assumption being that the thoughts and views of one writer about a variety of subjects would either be too niche or disparate to hold my attention. Well, let me tell you - not so with Anne Enright!

While I initially thought this was a collection of newly written pieces, it’s actually a kind of anthology of previously published essays, talks, and articles, organised into the sections Voices, Bodies, and Time. Each piece is briefly introduced by Enright, giving insight into its origin and background.

Voices focuses primarily on other authors, including Toni Morrison, James Joyce, John McGahern, and Alice Munro.

Bodies focuses on the role of women in society, particularly in Ireland, and explores the control of the Catholic Church, mother and baby homes, and Ireland’s abortion referendum.

Time contains broader and more personal essays which touch on Enright’s own life and her family, including the death of her own mother (who appears throughout the collection), her own marriage, and her upbringing and life in Dublin.

If you have read Enright’s novels or listened to her talk, you will know she’s a wry and witty observer of society, both personal and political, and her warmth and honesty shine throughout this collection. She can be critical but never cutting, and this collection showcases a woman who you’d happily sit down to tea with and set the world to rights.

My favourite piece, The Husband, is an account of several trips taken with her husband, over several years. It’s a beautiful reflection on her marriage, being a writer, and ageing, and I found it very moving.

If you’re a fan of Enright’s novels, Attention is a worthy addition to her body of work. It’s made me reconsider the value of essay collections, and I definitely won’t be so quick to dismiss them in the future. Highly recommended.

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[Anggi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading Anne’s musings on different topics in this book of essays. She does not shy away from discussing difficult topics such as abortion in Ireland, the Magdalene laundry, disgraced authors such as Junot Diaz, and Alice Munro among others, and also her own upbringing and its influence to the way she writes.

Definitely a must read even if you have not read any of her other work, this is a great book to start with. I can’t wait to read more of her work!

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of essays is grouped into Voices, Bodies and Time, which is shorthand for the subtitle.

I enjoyed them all and especially liked her perspective on fellow authors (Voices). Her evolving discussion of Irish culture and politics is refined with age and perspective, although the loss of her parents is much more universal.

I have confessed a weakness for Irish writers before, and Enright does not disappoint!

[Louisa]

i have a thing for female irish writers and it all started with anne enright. her prose is alive, precise, her outlook fair, funny, and strangely hopeful. always preferred her essays to her fiction, though
the collection here feels a little uneven (making babies was perfect) and her endings sometimes feel like she stumbled into them, but overall still a good read.

[Daragh Goan · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

I’m going to try and review more in 2026.

A beautiful collection of essays and piece of non-fiction that felt serendipitous as a likely last read of 2025.

It’s not 2026 yet so this review is short so leave off will ye