John Boyne

We're so excited to welcome John Boyne to this very special festival event. John is the award-winning author of nineteen novels. His 2006 novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and has been adapted for cinema, theatre, ballet, and opera.

His many novels include The Heart's Invisible Furies and A Ladder to the Sky. He has won four Irish Book Awards, including Author of the Year in 2022, along with a host of other international literary prizes, including most recently the 2025 FNAC novel prize for The Elements. His novels have been published in sixty languages.

John will be talking about his extraordinary new novel The Weight of Angels - taking the 'sliding doors' moment of Oscar Wilde's life as the jumping off point, he imagines an alternate future for the iconic writer based on him ignoring the Marquess of Queensbury's homophobic note rather than suing for libel.