The Books Quiz: Giants, priests and poets

Test your literary knowledge

British author Kazuo Ishiguro   was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature earlier this month, but what is the title of his latest novel? Photograph:   Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
British author Kazuo Ishiguro was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature earlier this month, but what is the title of his latest novel? Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

1. What is the name of the Nobel Prize winning author Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel?

a) The Sleeping Giant
b) The Land of Giants
c) The Big Friendly Giant
d) The Buried Giant

2. “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York” is the opening line of which novel?

a) The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
b) The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
c) The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
d) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

3. Eilís Dillon is the mother of which well-known poet?

a) Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
b) Eavan Boland
c) Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
d) Medbh McGuckian

4. Diary of a Country Priest is set in which country?

a) England
b) France
c) Belgium
d) Spain

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5. Who wrote The Vicar of Wakefield?

a) Oliver Goldsmith
b) Richard Brinsley Sheridan
c) Chaucer
d) Tobias Smollett

6. Who created the amateur detective character Fr Brown?

a) JRR Tolkien
b) GK Chesterton
c) CS Lewis
d) CS Forester

7. Which Brian Moore novel features east European cardinal Stephen Bem?

a) Catholics
b) Black Robe
c) The Colour of Blood
d) Cold Heaven

8. Which Graham Greene novel features a whiskey priest being hunted down by the authorities? It was made into a film by John Ford calledThe Fugitive

a) Monsignor Quixote
b) The Power and the Glory
c) The Heart of the Matter
d) The Ministry of Fear

9. What is the name of the alcoholic priest in James Plunkett’s Strumpet City, played by Cyril Cusack in the RTÉ adaptation?

a) Fr Gilbey
b) Fr O'Connor
c) Fr Giffley
d) Fr Porter

10. Bless Me Father, the ITV sitcom starring Arthur Lowe as Irish priest Fr Duddleswell, was based on the novels by former curate Peter de Rosa under which pen name?

a) Neil Boyd
b) Michael Bond
c) Patrick McAlinney
d) Daniel Abineri

Answers

1 (d), 2 (b), 3 (a), 4 (b), 5 (a), 6 (b), 7 (c), 8 (b), 9 (c), 10(a)