From mystery thrillers to rom-coms, these are the Irish books (and authors) to add to your summer reading list this year.
I love to read, but carving out enough time to get through the stack of books by my bedside can be a challenge. Great as my intentions to read a book a month are, life often gets in the way.
Come summertime, though, my pace seems to quicken. I don’t know if it’s the good weather, the long evenings or the promise of a trip away that does it, but I always end up finishing more books this time of year than any other. And with so many amazing options from Irish authors, it’s no wonder my To Be Read list is never-ending.
If you’re in need of suggestions, here are eight different books to keep you going this summer.
All Them Dogs by Djamel White, out now
Things are different since Tony Ward landed back in town. The West Dublin gangland has changed. His old mentor is dead and his best pal Kenny Boyle is on the straight and narrow. After five years keeping quiet across the way, Tony is keen to reinstate himself and when the opportunity arises to work side by side with Darren ‘Flute’ Walsh, a top enforcer of notorious crime boss Angus Lavelle, it feels like a no-brainer.
Biting off more than he can chew has never bothered Tony Ward, but Flute Walsh is not the meek, quiet boy Tony remembers from school. Brooding, stoic, and unpredictably dangerous, Tony finds himself drawn to his new associate in more ways than one. With retribution from his past actions always close in the rear view, the protection offered by Flute’s standing in the gang is crucial. But how safe is Tony really, when a mutual attraction starts to complicate matters?
Published to rave reviews earlier this year, if you haven’t read All Them Dogs yet, then summer is the perfect opportunity.
Love Scene by Anna Carey, out now
With an endorsement from Marian Keyes, who described it as “utterly delicious”, Love Scene is the kind of book made for summer reading – that is to say, funny, romantic, and unputdownable. The story centres on TV writer Annie McDermott, who has finally landed her dream job on the soap Northside. But, it’s actually more of a nightmare given that she has to share an office with her nemesis; the arrogant (and distractingly handsome) Art Sullivan, whom Annie hasn’t seen since their college days. He was supposed to be Hollywood’s Next Big Thing, but now he’s back, working on a soap and pushing Annie’s buttons.
When she suspects someone is trying to sabotage Northside, Annie realises she’ll have to enlist Art’s help to stop them – if they can quit arguing long enough to finally admit they make a good team, that is.
Somewhere by Jessamine O’Connor, out now
Back in the flat, Sylvia is no use. She doesn’t have any ideas; all she suggests is get a job, take your time, get some money together, then go somewhere. But Clodagh needs to go now, needs to go today if possible. Even Seamus has gone. But where and with what?’
Clodagh finds herself adrift after leaving her partner, Seamus. Navigating addiction, the harsh realities of a housing crisis, and relationships pushed to the brink, this is a story of her attempts to reconnect with herself and those closest to her, in a gritty, vividly rendered contemporary Dublin.
Weaving from place to place and person to person – past friends, fellow users and her worried mother Sylvia – Clodagh struggles to fully understand herself or the city she calls home. The debut novel from Sligo writer Jessamine O’Connor, it’s a raw and intimate portrait of a woman balancing on the edge of survival, seeking meaning and love amid isolation and addiction.
This is Also a Love Story by Sally Hayden
Brought to you by the Orwell Prize-winning author of My Fourth Time, We Drowned comes a powerful account of human resilience, capturing our capacity for love and connection against all odds.
As an acclaimed international correspondent, Sally Hayden has spent her career covering some of the darkest moments of our time, and yet even in the face of unimaginable adversity, she’s witnessed the love and care of everyday people. Here, she introduces us to stories that crisscross the globe, from Uganda to Lebanon, Rwanda to Iraq, as she asks us: what if news was recounted through the actions people take for those they love? Would it become harder to dehumanise those who seem different to us? It’s an important question and a deeply moving book that will help you see the good in the world (even if it’s sometimes hard to find).
Said the Dead by Doireann Ní Ghriofa, out now
In Cork city, a derelict Victorian mental hospital is being converted into modern apartments. One passerby has always flinched as she walks by the place. Had she lived in another time, she too might have found herself held within those walls.
Now, she notices a sign: FOR SALE.
It is the first of many signs. Guided by an irresistible impulse, she follows them. Soon, she is trespassing, stealing, absconding from the routine of mother, spouse, daughter, as she uncovers a chorus of startling voices: those of the women who knew the hospital best. They murmur from archives and old records. They haunt from stairwells and walls. In them – and in one figure in particular – she may find meaning and solace, righteous anger, salvation even. Or her final vanishing?
Blending history with ghost story, Said the Dead is a story of worlds past and present, real and imagined – this one will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading
Experts in a Dying Field by Patrick Freyne, out 11 June
The Heathens thought of themselves as ‘the 1000th best band of all time’. Then their tour van crashed, and one of their members died. Twenty years later, weird things are happening in Dublin, bringing the surviving members of the band together in ways none of them could have anticipated and lifting the lid on mysteries from their shared past.
Patrick Freyne’s debut novel, it’s a tale of friendship, secrets, the strange workings of grief and guilt and the joyful alchemy of music.
The Ballad of Ronan McCoy by Colin Morgan, out 18 June
If you’re a fan of David Nicholls, then Colin Morgan’s new book may be just the thing to reignite your love of reading.
A tender coming-of-age story, it follows Brendan and his best – and only – friend Ronan McCoy. When Ronan doesn’t show up at school on the first day of term, Brendan learns that something terrible happened during the summer and he’ll never be the same again. Over the course of the final year of school, Brendan will have to learn to navigate the new shape of their friendship and find a place for himself in the world without Ronan to protect him.
Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard, out 16 July
The author of nine novels – including the number one bestseller The Nothing Man, 56 Days, The Trap and Burn After Reading – Catherine Ryan Howard knows how to write a book that people want to read. Her latest, a page-turning mystery thriller, is no different. In it two women’s shattered lives come crashing together around a house whose secrets could bury them both.
When Ellie moves into 1 Delaney Row, all she has to her name is the house, a small suitcase and the terrible secrets she’s desperate to keep. But what she doesn’t know is that her new home is already hiding someone else’s secrets – and the people determined to keep them are watching her. When a grim discovery prompts Ellie to find out more about the house’s past, she unwittingly puts herself on a deadly collision course not just with her new home’s history, but with her own as well.
