It's been a funny old year - but a great one for books.
Here's a sample of some of the more noteworthy titles from the first two-thirds of 2021...
BEST OF IRISH...
Diving For Pearls by Jamie O'Connell (Doubleday)
What's The Story? A young woman's body floats in the Dubai marina. Her death alters the fates of six people, each one striving for a better life in an unforgiving city. Dubai has made promises to them all. Promises of gilded opportunities and bright new horizons, the chance to forget the past and protect long-held secrets. But Dubai breaks its promises, with deadly consequences. In a city of mirages, how do you find your way out?
Boys Don't Cry by Fiona Scarlett (Faber)
What's The Story? Joe is 17, a gifted artist and a brilliant older brother to 12-year-old Finn. They live with their Ma and Da in a Dublin tower block called Bojaxhiu or 'the Jax'. It's not an easy place to be a kid, especially when your father, Frank, is the muscle for the notorious gang leader Dessie 'The Badger' Murphy. But whether it's daytrips to the beach or drawing secret sketches, Joe works hard to show Finn life beyond the battered concrete yard below their flat.
Moving About The Place by Evelyn Conlon (Blackstaff Press)
What's The Story? This collection of eleven stories is a compelling exploration of what comes from moving about the place. Evelyn Conlon vividly imagines her characters all over the world: Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Italy, Monaco, in a house with two drills of vegetables in Skerries. A couple spend their lives wandering around the equator because of a lie they told during anti-apartheid days; one person holds out in a border-straddling tree; a woman from Hiroshima makes the decision to get pregnant; an Irishwoman attempts to assassinate Mussolini, another fights for women's suffrage in Australia. Full of the sharp observation for which Conlon is well known, Moving About the Place shows how borders, movement and history change and transform people's lives.
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Listen: A Word In Edgeways with Evelyn Conlon
The Irish Assassins by Julie Kavanagh (Grove Press)
What's The Story? On a sunlit evening in l882, Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke, Chief Secretary and Undersecretary for Ireland, were ambushed and stabbed to death while strolling through Phoenix Park in Dublin. The murders were carried out by the Invincibles, a militant faction of republicans armed with specially-made surgeon's blades. In a story that spans Donegal, Dublin, London, Paris, New York, Cannes and Cape Town, Julie Kavanagh traces the crucial events that came before and after the murders.
Where Are We Now? by Glenn Patterson (Head Of Zeus)
What's The Story? Herbie has had enough. It doesn't seem like he has much going for him anymore. His wife, the great love of his life, left him years ago, his daughter has fled for the bright lights of London, and now he's lost his job too. But life has a tendency to surprise. When Herbie wanders into a new café in his neighbourhood, he may well find something he never expected... Could it be that life isn't finished with him yet? Where Are We Now? is a novel about lost love, growing older and the realities of life in a society still haunted by decades of violence, it is a life-affirming story of a life not yet over.
The Beauty Of Impossible Things by Rachel Donohue (Corvus)
What's The Story? The summer Natasha Rothwell turns fifteen, strange dancing lights appear in the sky above her small town, lights that she interprets as portents of doom. Natasha leads a sheltered life with her beautiful, bohemian mother in a crumbling house by the sea. As news of the lights spreads, more and more visitors arrive in the town, creating a feverish atmosphere of anticipation and dread. And the arrival of a new lodger, the handsome Mr Bowen, threatens to upset the delicate equilibrium between mother and daughter. Then Natasha's fears seem to be realized when a local teenager goes missing, and she is called on to help. But her actions over that long, hot summer will have unforeseen and ultimately tragic consequences that will cast a shadow for many years to come...
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Listen: Rachel Donohue talks The Beauty of Impossible Things on RTÉ Arena
About Us by Sinead Moriarty (Sandycove)
What's The Story? Three couples. One therapist's couch. Alice and Niall used to be lovers, best friends and parents, in that order. Now they're no longer on the same page or even reading from the same book. Ann thought when she and Ken retired, it would be their second spring. Instead, it feels more like an icy winter. Orla is falling in love with boyfriend Paul, but her complicated past makes her unsure if she can ever be intimate with anyone. Three couples find themselves telling a stranger about the most private part of their lives - their hopes, their disappointments, their awkward realisations. Can they learn to be honest with each other? And what life-changing decisions will be made when they do?
Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground by Susan McKay (Blackstaff Press)
What's The Story? Twenty years on from her critically acclaimed book, Northern Protestants: An Unsettled People, Susan McKay talks again to the Protestant community in Northern Ireland. Containing interviews with politicians, former paramilitaries, victims and survivors, business people, religious leaders, community workers, young people, writers and others, it tackles controversial issues, such as Brexit, paramilitary violence, the border, the legacy of the Troubles, same-sex marriage and abortion, RHI, and the possibility of a United Ireland, and explores social justice issues and campaigns, particularly the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights.
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The Moon Over Kilmore Quay by Carmel Harrington (Harper Collins)
What's The Story? Living in Brooklyn, in a tight-knit Irish community, Bea O'Connor has it all - a loving family, great friends and a boyfriend she believes she could grow old with. So why does she feel so lost and unsure? Only a letter, written over a decade ago, can give her the answers she's unknowingly looked for all her life. Years earlier, with her sister Maeve by her side, Lucy Mernagh leaves her home in Ireland in search of adventure and the New York dream. But the busy streets of the Big Apple are a world away from the quiet village she grew up in, and the longing for home aches deep within her. Until she learns that opportunity lies around every street corner and just maybe this city - and one of its occupants - will steal her heart if she lets them... This is the story of two women, enduring friendships, family secrets and the voices that call you home.
Before My Actual Heart Breaks by Tish Delaney (Penguin)
What's The Story? When she was young Mary Rattigan wanted to fly . She was going to take off like an angel from heaven and leave the muck and madness of troubled Northern Ireland behind. Nothing but the Land of Happy Ever After would do for her. But as a Catholic girl with a B.I.T.C.H. for a Mammy and a silent Daddy, things did not go as she and Lizzie Magee had planned. Now, five children, twenty-five years, an end to the bombs and bullets, enough whisky to sink a ship and endless wakes and sandwich teas later, Mary's alone. She's learned plenty of hard lessons and missed a hundred steps towards the life she'd always hoped for. Will she finally find the courage to ask for the love she deserves? Or is it too late?
The Hitmen: The Shocking True Story of a Family of Killers for Hire by Stephen Breen and Owen Conlon (Sandycove)
What's The Story? Meet the Wilsons - the deadliest family in crime Brothers Eric, Keith and John Wilson, their cousin Alan, and nephew Luke shared a trade - assassination. Working for Ireland's criminal gangs they brought bloodshed and chaos to the streets. The Wilsons were not choosy about their targets. Hutches, Real IRA chiefs or random opponents from pub rows - they were all the same to them. Nor were they picky about motives - as long as the price was right, they asked no questions. The Hitmen is the story of how a family cornered the market in intimidation and vengeance. It details the terrible cost in human suffering, particularly the death of an innocent teenage girl, Mariaora Rostas, when she randomly crossed their path. And it reveals how, one by one, each of the Wilsons was put out of business.
The Science Of Happiness by Brendan Kelly (Gill)
What's The Story? In this timely book, leading psychiatrist Professor Brendan Kelly sifts through the most up-to-date findings to arrive at a comprehensive set of principles and strategies that are scientifically proven to increase happiness levels. Firstly, Professor Kelly examines the global research that reveals current trends in happiness: for example, those with right-wing political views are happier than those on the left; having a baby increases your happiness levels for two years; 47 is the age of greatest unhappiness; and Finland is the happiest country. He then explains the six over-arching principles of a happy life and seven strategies for achieving it – without having to switch political allegiance or move to Finland.
All Her Fault by Andrea Mara (Bantam)
What's The Story? Marissa Irvine arrives at 14 Tudor Grove, expecting to pick up her young son Milo from his first playdate with a boy at his new school. But the woman who answers the door isn't a mother she recognises. She isn't the nanny. She doesn't have Milo. And so begins every parent's worst nightmare. As news of the disappearance filters through the quiet Dublin suburb and an unexpected suspect is named, whispers start to spread about the women most closely connected to the shocking event. Because only one of them may have taken Milo - but they could all be blamed...
Dublin's Girl by Eimear Lawlor (Head Of Zeus)
What's The Story? 1917. A farm girl from Cavan, Veronica McDermott is desperate to find more to life than peeling potatoes. Persuading her family to let her stay with her aunt and uncle in Dublin so she can attend secretarial college, she has no idea what she is getting into. Recruited by Fr Michael O'Flanagan to type for Eamon De Valera, Veronica is soon caught up in the danger and intrigue of those fighing for Ireland's independence from Britain...
THE BEST OF THE REST...
The Hard Crowd by Rachel Kutcher
What's The Story? In this essay collection from the Booker-shortlisted author of The Mars Room, The Hard Crowd spans literary journalism, memoir, cultural criticism, and writing about art and literature, including pieces on Jeff Koons, Denis Johnson, and Marguerite Duras. Kushner takes us on a journey through a Palestinian refugee camp, an illegal motorcycle race down the Baja Peninsula, 1970s wildcat strikes in Fiat factories, her love of classic cars, and her young life in the music scene of her hometown, San Francisco. The closing, eponymous essay is her manifesto on nostalgia, doom, and writing.
Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka (Harvill Secker)
What's The Story? What's Satoshi looks like an innocent schoolboy but he is really a viciously cunning psychopath. Kimura's young son is in a coma thanks to him, and Kimura has tracked him onto the bullet train heading from Tokyo to Morioka to exact his revenge. But Kimura soon discovers that they are not the only dangerous passengers onboard.Nanao, the self-proclaimed 'unluckiest assassin in the world', and the deadly partnership of Tangerine and Lemon are also travelling to Morioka. A suitcase full of money leads others to show their hands. Why are they all on the same train, and who will get off alive at the last station?
Widespread Panic by James Ellroy (William Heinemann)
What's The Story? A tale of pervasive paranoia teeming with communist conspiracies, FBI finks, celebrity smut films and strange bedfellows. Freddy Otash is the man in the know and the man to know in '50s L.A. He operates with two simple rules - he'll do anything but commit murder and he'll never work with the commies. Freddy is an ex-L.A. cop on the skids. He snuffed a cop killer in cold blood - and it got to him bad. So Chief William H. Parker canned him. Now he's a sleazoid private eye, a shakedown artist, a pimp - and, most notably, the head strongarm goon for Confidential magazine...
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (Doubleday)
What's The Story? From the night she is rescued as a baby out of the flames of a sinking ship; to the day she joins a pair of daredevil pilots looping and diving over the rugged forests of her childhood, to the thrill of flying Spitfires during the war, the life of Marian Graves has always been marked by a lust for freedom and danger. In 1950, she embarks on the great circle flight, circumnavigating the globe. It is Marian's life dream and her final journey, before she disappears without a trace. Half a century later, Hadley Baxter, a brilliant, troubled Hollywood starlet is irresistibly drawn to play Marian Graves, a role that will lead her to probe the deepest mysteries of the vanished pilot's life.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Del Rey)
What's The Story? Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him...
The Funny Thing about Norman Foreman by Julietta Henderson (Bantham)
What's The Story? Norman and Jax are a legendary comedic duo in waiting, with a five-year plan to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe by the time they're fifteen. But when Jax dies before they turn twelve, Norman decides a tribute act for his best friend just can't wait, so he rewrites their plan:1. Look after mum | 2. Find Dad | 3. Get to the Edinburgh Fringe. Sadie knows she won't win Mother of the Year and she's not proud she doesn't know who her son's father is. But when she finds Norman's list, all she wants is to see her son smile again... So they set off on a pilgrimage to Edinburgh, making a few stops to find Norman's dad along the way.
Tall Bones by Anna Bailey (Doubleday)
What's The Story? When seventeen-year-old Emma leaves her best friend Abi at a party in the woods, she believes, like most girls her age, that their lives are just beginning. Many things will happen that night, but Emma will never see her friend again. Abi's disappearance cracks open the façade of the small town of Whistling Ridge, its intimate history of long-held grudges and resentment. Even within Abi's family, there are questions to be asked...
Untraceable by Sergei Lebedev (Head Of Zeus)
What's The Story? A Russian novel about poisons of all kinds – physical, moral, political – all rooted in the recent history of Russia's state assassinations and Putin’s continuation of the most degraded traditions of his country’s history. From Nazi labs, Stalinist plots and the Chechen Wars, to present-day Russia, Lebedev probes the ethical responsibilities of scientists supplying modern tyrants and autocrats with ever newer instruments of retribution, destruction and control.
My Rock 'n' Roll Friend by Tracey Thorn (Faber)
What's The Story? In 1983, backstage at the Lyceum in London, Tracey Thorn and Lindy Morrison first met. Tracey's music career was just beginning, while Lindy, drummer for The Go-Betweens, was ten years her senior. They became confidantes, comrades and best friends, a relationship cemented by gossip and feminism, books and gigs and rock 'n' roll love affairs.
