Sinead O’Connor’s brother doesn’t listen to her music

Every time O’Connor sits down to write, he does so as if trying to make music. Photo: AFP

When the Irish novelist Joseph O’Connor reads his books aloud he almost sings them. Like his sister, the singer Sinead O’Connor, he is forever searching for “musicality”.

In the famously tumultuous O’Connor household, art was a family affair. Joseph, the eldest, began writing at 14 and published his first book at 27.