Padraig Kenny

About Author

Padraig Kenny, our Author of the Month, tells ReadingZone what inspired his new dystopian adventure, After.

Padraig is an Irish writer from County Kildare, now living in Limerick. Previously an arts journalist, a teacher and a librarian's assistant, he now writes full-time. He is married with four children.

His first novel TIN was a Waterstones Book of the Month and was nominated for the Carnegies, as well as being shortlisted for the Irish Book Award and several regional awards. His earlier novel, Stitch, is drawn from the myth of Frankenstein's monster.

Interview

After (Walker Books)

March 2025

In After, we enter a post-apocalyptic world where a girl Jen and her father are trying to find somewhere to call home. Through the course of the novel, we learn what caused the apocalypse that has nearly destroyed humanity - and about the risks the survivors still face.

Padraig Kenny, our Children's Author of the Month, tells ReadingZone what inspired After, why he enjoys writing about 'outsiders', and his thoughts on the risks of AI and our pride in technology.

Review: "Original and exciting, with a twist I did not see coming!" Read a chapter from After

Q&A with Padraig Kenny introducing his post-apocalyptic science-fiction adventure, After

"Outsiders in any kind of story are always the most interesting for me, because through them you can
explore what's wrong with structures in society."

1. Hello Padraig, and thank you for joining us on ReadingZone as our Children's Author of the Month! Can you tell us what your new novel, After, is about?

After is about a girl called Jen and her relationship with her father. Both are wandering through a near empty world after a global catastrophe. Jen's so-called father is an android, and this causes complications when they meet a community of survivors.

2. What was the starting point for After, and how did the novel evolve?

I wanted to write a story centred on a father daughter relationship. Initially I thought it would be nice to explore their relationship away from the rest of civilization, but then I flipped it on its head and thought it might be more interesting (a) to set it after the collapse of civilization, and (b) to make things a little more complicated dramatically by making the father figure an android. I've always wanted to write a sci-fi story, and this gave me the opportunity.

3. How do you use science fiction in your stories to explore themes around outsiders and what it means to be truly human? Why do you enjoy approaching these ideas through this genre?

I grew up reading and watching a lot of science fiction, and I was always drawn to characters like Spock and Mr Data in Star Trek and how they were outsiders and what that meant in terms of how they fit into the world around them. Outsiders in any kind of story are always the most interesting for me, because through them you can explore what's wrong with structures in society. I've always felt it easier to feel sympathy for outsiders, both in terms of reading stories and writing them.

4. What does After say about your own thoughts on our future with AI, and man's pride in technological developments?

I think the key word is pride because the end of the world in After has come about because of one man's pride, and maybe even the collective pride of the human race regarding technological achievement. Just because something makes things easier doesn't necessarily mean it's good. Also, technology in and of itself isn't bad but what really matters is the intention of the people behind the technology.

5. Your survivors in this world, Jen and Father, have a wonderful bond. How difficult was it to develop this when they don't have a past to learn from?

It was actually easy because then I knew they had to fill in their past with stories of their own, and Jen uses books and deserted libraries to piece things together about the world before the collapse. Father also depends a lot on a copy of a parenting book he carries around with him. That was a fun device to use, and also it was enjoyable exploring their interaction and occasionally reversing the parent / child dynamic, because Father is probably more of a child in his own way than Jen is.

6. How did you go about creating the post-apocalyptic setting in After, with its ghost towns and scattered communities?

I've always loved post-apocalyptic stories, everything from Stephen King's The Stand to Station 11, and I've always wanted to dabble in that kind of fictional setting. I was hugely influence by all the post-apocalyptic drama I've read and seen since I was a child, and I think I was drawn to the possibilities of starting everything from scratch which is what that kind of setting allows. All you need is two people in a near empty world and to find out how they navigate it in the most logical and yet dramatically interesting way possible.

7. How would you encourage young writers in creating their own possible future world?

Think about what's lost and what would happen if everything we depend upon was stripped away. Then it becomes a matter of building it back up again in new and interesting ways. That could be everything from communities to technology, and then you have to explore how people would interact in this new world. A destroyed world gives you great fictional freedom. You can sit back and imagine what would we do without the Internet and phones (I know! The horror!).

8. Can you tell us about the ideas you explore and questions you ask around language, storytelling and truth, in After?

One of the main themes in After centres on stories, in particular how some "stories" are just convenient lies that parents tell their children to protect them from the harsh realities of the world. Father and Jen have their own storytelling rituals, and when Jen discovers that Father has been hiding things from her, that causes complications.

9. After is a wonderful page-turner - and there's a great twist at the end - but what kinds of questions would you like your readers to take away when they turn the final pages?

First and foremost I'd like them to have enjoyed the adventure, then if it makes them think about what's important to people, particularly in terms of family, friendship, and community that would be a nice little extra.

10. Where do you go to seek out a creative spark for your next book? What kinds of places, stories or people draw you in?

I tend not to actively seek out stories so much as wait to be in the right daydreaming frame of mind for something to suggest itself to me. I could be inspired by something I overhear, or an image, and if that stays with me and leads me to ask "Is there a story here?" then I follow it. As I said already, I like writing about outsiders, and my next book is set in a completely fictional reality with its own new set of rules and a whole new set of outsiders.

Padraig Kenny introduces his earlier novel, Stitch (Walker Books, 2024)

Inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Padraig Kenny's Stitch follows a boy who has been created by a professor, and explores his journey into the world; a journey from innocence to experience. Like Frankenstein's monster, Stitch is feared and reviled but his many kindnesses encourage people around him to start to question who really is the monster in their midst?

Review: "I loved this book, and I would use it in class to look into deeper meaning of text as well as the big concepts of difference and humanity."

About Author

Interview

Author's Titles