EL by Thaddeus Ó Buachalla – ‘An early contender for the most ambitious Irish novel of the year’
Irish Language Novel of the Year – Irish Book Awards 2022
What happens when two Cork students – one a literature scholar, one a physicist – discover tiny blue men crawling from the head of a crushed fly? That is the premise of EL, the English-language translation of Thaddeus Ó Buachalla’s award-winning Irish-language novel, and it is as wild, funny, and intellectually ambitious as it sounds.
‘There we were worrying about the little green men and they were blue all along.’
— Declan Burke, The Irish Times
The novel
EL opens with Seán, a Cork-based student of Irish-language literature, making an extraordinary microscopic discovery. When his housemate Peadar – a physics student committed to “the logic of science” – confirms what he has seen, their entire belief system is upended. Together they burrow into the historical record and find they are far from the first to encounter these mysterious beings. Coded references emerge from sources as unlikely as Galileo, John Milton, Robert Hooke, and the Dutch entomologist Jan Swammerdam.
But as their investigation deepens, sinister forces close in. Is it the little blue men taking revenge – or some kind of illuminati determined to keep the truth buried?
Described by Declan Burke in The Irish Times as “equal parts Flann O’Brien and Dan Brown,” EL is a tongue-in-cheek speculative fiction of impressively epic sweep, taking in the Black Death, the Great Fire of London, the political chicanery of the Medici, and the timeless battle between good and evil – a search for what the novel calls “the universal absolute truth.”
What the critics say
‘There’s a lovely old-fashioned swagger to this novel, and there’s no doubt that contemporary Irish fiction needs more of this kind of risky, absurdist mischief-making, just to remind us what we’re capable of.’
— Declan Burke, The Irish Times
The novel’s narrator Seán – earnest, digressive, prone to repetition, and insistent that “this is not a novel” – draws on a literary lineage that runs from Seán Ó Ríordáin and Pádraic Ó Conaire through to Rabelais. The archival excerpts he selects are deliberately “starchily formal,” adding to the novel’s playful, self-aware quality.
‘EL is an early contender for the most ambitious Irish novel of the year.’
— Declan Burke, The Irish Times
About the author and translation
EL has been translated into English by Thaddeus Ó Buachalla himself – a rare act of authorial control that ensures the novel’s distinctive voice remains intact across languages. Ó Buachalla is among a new generation of Irish-language writers pushing the boundaries of what Irish-language fiction can be and do.
Why EL matters
At a moment when Irish fiction is gaining extraordinary international attention, EL represents something genuinely different: a novel rooted in the Irish-language literary tradition that reaches outward into speculative fiction, European intellectual history, and comic absurdism. It is Irish literature taking real risks – and succeeding.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
EL is an Irish speculative fiction novel following two Cork students – one studying Irish-language literature, one physics – who discover microscopic blue men and are drawn into a conspiracy spanning Galileo, Milton, the Medici, the Black Death, and the Great Fire of London. It won the Irish Language Novel of the Year at the 2022 Irish Book Awards.
Yes. EL has been translated into English by the author, Thaddeus Ó Buachalla, and is published by Mercier Press. It is available in paperback and as an ebook.
Reviewers have compared EL to Flann O’Brien for its absurdist wit and meta-fictional games. The novel also draws on the tradition of Seán Ó Ríordáin and Pádraic Ó Conaire, alongside international influences including Rabelais and Dan Brown.
EL was reviewed by Declan Burke in The Irish Times, who called it ‘an early contender for the most ambitious Irish novel of the year’ and praised its “lovely old-fashioned swagger” and “risky, absurdist mischief-making.”
EL is best described as Irish speculative fiction or literary absurdism. It blends conspiracy thriller, historical fiction, and comic philosophical novel in the tradition of Irish experimental prose writing.
Thaddeus Ó Buachalla is an Irish-language author based in Ireland. EL, his debut novel, won the Irish Language Novel of the Year at the 2022 Irish Book Awards. He translated the novel into English himself for Mercier Press.
EL: Translated From The Irish
Speculative historical fiction and winner of the An Post Irish Language Novel of the Year Award. Part academic mystery, part historical thriller, EL speaks directly to our post-truth moment – a world where AI reshapes narratives, disinformation spreads like wildfire, and the very nature of truth hangs in the balance. Translated from Irish by the author, this award-winning work captures the authentic voice of contemporary Irish literature.
ISBN: 9781781179536
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