Quite Simply, How Do We Live?: Cork World Book Fest 2026

Dr Harry Barry and Oona Frawley in conversation with PJ Coogan

Join Dr Harry Barry and Oona Frawley for insights into grief, memory, resilience and more.

Known for his practical, insightful books on anxiety, resilience, and emotional wellbeing, international number one bestseller, Dr Harry Barry opens the door not only to his mind, but to his life in his Memoir. Beneath the Surface: A Doctor’s Journey of Resilience, Empathy and Self-Discovery ‘tells a remarkable story of Dr. Barry’s journey from UCD in the 1970s to a remote hospital in Tanzania where he would meet someone who was to have a transformative effect on his approach to health, and on through decades on the front line of Irish general practice, culminating in a life-altering realisation that would see him change the course of his career.’

More than the story of one man’s life – it is an invitation to pause, reflect, and find deeper meaning in our own. — DR SABINA BRENNAN

This book provides unique insights into the life and work of one of Ireland’s most influential doctors. — SR STAN KENNEDY

‘As she witnesses her mother’s descent into dementia and a beloved friend’s cruel battle with cancer, Oona Frawley reconsiders the death of her father in New York decades earlier, the loss of her parents’ home in Ireland before she was born, and the births of her own children. Balancing between grief at the passing of those closest to her, and joy at the emergence of new life, Frawley has wrought a stunning meditation on memory, family and the brief windows of life we share with those we love.’

‘Utterly humane, fearlessly honest and always, at its core, hopeful, This Interim Time is a powerful, moving work at once intensely personal and entirely universal’.