Mary Costello

Biography

Mary Costello is from the West of Ireland. She has published three novels and two short story collections. Her first collection, The China Factory (2012), was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award. Her first novel, Academy Street, won the Irish Novel of the Year and Irish Book of the Year awards in 2014. It was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, the Costa First Novel Prize and the EU Prize for Literature among others, and was translated into several languages. Her second novel, The River Capture (2019), was shortlisted for the Irish Novel of the Year, the Dalkey Book Prize, and the Kerry Group Novel of the Year Award. Barcelona (2024), her second collection of short stories, was an Irish Times bestseller. Her stories have been published in various literary magazines including The New Yorker, and widely anthologised.

Her latest novel, A Beautiful Loan (2026), was published to critical acclaim and was an Irish Times bestseller.