There’s nothing better than settling in for a great read and when it comes to the work of our country’s authors, we are spoiled for choice
Here is a selection of fantastic new and upcoming books by Irish writers to pack for your holidays or put on your bedside locker immediately.
Our Song by Anna Carey
Anna Carey is an Irish Book Award-winning novelist, journalist, editor and scriptwriter who spent her teens and twenties playing in bands. She is married to her former bandmate, fellow writer Patrick Freyne, and lives in Dublin. Our Song is her first book for adults and is about making the most of second chances. Laura gave up on her dream of a career in music a long time ago but when she hears one of her former bandmate Tadhg’s songs on the radio, she isn’t so sure. Now he’s a superstar, touring the world with his songs, reminding Laura of what might have been. When Tadhg emails saying he wants to finish a song they started writing together sixteen years ago, she realises music isn’t the only thing that deserves a second chance.
Let Me Go Mad My Own Way by Elaine Feeney
Elaine Feeney is an acclaimed Irish novelist and her book, How to Build a Boat was long-listed for the Booker Prize. In her latest novel, the protagonist, Claire O’Connor, is a woman whose life has been on hold since she broke up with Tom Morton and moved from London to the west of Ireland to care for her dying father. Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way is a story of love and resilience and the legacies of violence and redemption. As the secrets of the past are revealed, Claire must confront whether she can escape her history to make her own future and finally face herself.
The Landlord by RB Egan
Dubliner R.B. Egan has a fascinating back story. He started out as an actor, working in London and performing alongside household names like Sinead O’Connor, Kevin Spacey and Celine Dion. Later he moved to Tanzania where he and his wife operated a hotel and safari business for some years before settling back in Ireland. His latest book is about a woman who urgently needs to find a new place to live. When a friend tips her off about a room to rent, it seems like her luck has changed. The house is on one of the city’s most sought-after streets and the live-in landlord, whose son has just left home, is charming and kind. There’s just one rule: she can never go into the garden. Everything else seems so perfect, she doesn’t think twice. But she soon realises the deal she made is too good to be true and now it’s far too late…
The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine
Wendy Erskine is a broadcaster and secondary school teacher in Belfast and this is her debut novel. It tells the story of Frankie, Miriam and Bronagh: three very different women from Belfast, but all mothers to eighteen-year-old boys. Gorgeous Frankie, now married to a wealthy, older man, grew up in care. Miriam has recently lost her beloved husband Kahlil in ambiguous circumstances and Bronagh, the CEO of a children’s services charity, loves celebrity and prestige. When their sons are accused of sexually assaulting a friend they come together to protect their children, leveraging all the powers they possess. Brutal, tender, clever and darkly funny, The Benefactors is a daring, multi-voice presentation of modern-day Northern Ireland.
Two Kinds of Stranger by Steve Cavanagh
The latest book from award-winning and international best-selling author Steve Cavanagh looks set to be a proper page-turner! Internet celebrity Ellie Parker has everything. Perfect husband, perfect apartment, perfect job. So when a betrayal causes her to lose it all, millions of people are watching. But even at her lowest, Ellie will always help someone in need and a seemingly random encounter plunges her into a nightmare worse than she ever imagined. The only person she can turn to is conman turned trial lawyer Eddie Flynn but with the most cruelly ingenious mind manipulating events from the shadows, everyone is in danger – including Eddie and his family.
Intensive Care: An Irish doctor’s story of healing, heartbreak and hope in children’s ICU by Dr Suzanne Crowe (28 Aug)
Inspired by the death of her daughter Beatrice shortly after she was born, this is a deeply moving medical memoir from a leading Irish specialist in paediatric intensive care. Dr Suzanne Crowe’s career has centred on caring for children and supporting families through often unthinkable challenges. Here, the widowed mother of five shares stories of patients and colleagues she has met along the way and offers fascinating and at times profound perspectives on the nature of care and healing. She weaves in her own story of grief after the loss of a child, and how it changed her path in life.
Conversation with the Sea by Hugo Hamilton (28 Aug)
Sometimes a novel comes along that it is completely right for the time we live in. German-Irish author Hugo Hamilton has centred his story around Lukas Dorn who finds refuge from his failed marriage by revisiting the West of Ireland, the place of his honeymoon two decades earlier. While his former wife is being cancelled at work and his daughter is arrested at a street protest, he tries to make sense of his broken life with his journal as his sole companion. His inherited memory of the Nazi Holocaust comes face to face with the present when he meets a refugee from a recent warzone. Conversation with the Sea explores truth, illusion and the deadly silencing of war in this tale of love in a time of displacement.
The Gaeilge Guide by Mollie Guidera (11 Sept)
You might not know her full name but there’s a good chance you know her Instagram handle – Irish with Mollie – which has over 225K followers! Her new book, The Gaeilge Guide, brings her hugely popular online platform to the page in short, easy-to-engage-with sections with her trademark joy and humour. Including tips for practical usage, stories about the humanity and heart within the words, useful phrases and much more, the book offers a fresh, empowering way to reconnect with our native language.
Love in a Time of Politics: A Memoir of Facing Loss and Finding Hope by Katherine Zappone (18 Sept)
Katherine Zappone is the first open, married lesbian in Irish politics. She was appointed to the Seanad in 2011 and went on to win a seat in the Dáil in 2016 as an Independent Progressive. During her second year in ministerial office, her wife Ann Louise Gilligan suffered a major brain haemorrhage that left her blind – a tragedy marking the beginning of a profound transformation in their lives. Love in a Time of Politics is a moving story of love and loss that describes Katherine’s life in government as hospital visits to Ann Louise became a daily reality, and a testament to how resilience, hope and conviction can light even the darkest paths.
Such a Good Couple by Sophie White (18 Sept)
If you haven’t read a Sophie White book yet, you’re in for a treat. Her latest follows three couples whose lives seem like they’re on track but may actually be one thread pull from unravelling altogether. Their annual holiday brings the six friends (a tight gang for the past twenty years) together, each couple at breaking point. As the sunny days pass in the lap of luxury on Cape Cod, with champagne, secrets and harsh truths being spilled, they find they can’t hide their issues any longer. And more importantly, once the first ‘it’s over’ is uttered, can the other couples survive the fallout?
