Edel Coffey shares new books to curl up with …
Paula Hawkins’ The Girl On The Train (2015) was one of those books that simply took over the public imagination. Everybody seemed to be reading it. Hawkins has gone on to have a stellar career and her latest thriller is an intriguing novel called THE BLUE HOUR (Doubleday, €16.99). Hawkins says she was inspired by a holiday she took to the Côte de Granit Rose in France, a place where presqu’îles or “almost islands” are cut off from the mainland by the tide for a certain amount of time every day. On a walk along the coast, she spotted a single lonely house on an island and knew that she would write about it. In The Blue Hour, Eris is one of these almost islands cut off from the Scottish mainland for twelve hours each day. It has one house with one owner. The house used to belong to a famous artist, whose philandering husband disappeared 20 years ago. Now Grace lives there. It’s not the kind of house where people just drop by. But one day, a visitor comes calling.
Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series has made him the best-selling adult author of the decade. Now, he is taking a break from that series as it is adapted into a film for Netflix, and has turned his attention to a new cast of characters in his latest book, WE SOLVE MURDERS (Viking, €15.99). The book follows the story of retired policeman, Steve Wheeler, and his daughter-in-law, Amy, who is a bodyguard to billionaires. Amy’s client, Rosie D’Antonio, just happens to be the biggest-selling crime author in the world. Steve is happy with a quiet life, but when Amy needs his help, he is forced out of retirement.
Niall Williams is one of my favourite Irish authors. From his 2006 novel, Four Letters of Love, right up to his last novel, This Is Happiness, his delicate, compassionate stories of Irish life, love and community are beautifully insightful and uplifting. His new novel, TIME OF THE CHILD (Bloomsbury, €15.99), sees him return to the fictional Irish town of Faha. It’s 1962 and the widowed Dr Troy lives with his unmarried daughter, Ronnie. When an abandoned baby is left in their care in the weeks leading up to Christmas, the story becomes about whether Ronnie can keep this unexpected gift, but it is also a larger account of a particular time in Irish history.
Among the longlisted books on this year’s Booker Prize is Richard Powers’ PLAYGROUND (Hutchinson Heinemann, €15.99). I really enjoy this Pulitzer-winning author’s philosophical novels – he always makes me question what it is to be human. In Playground, he looks at the idea of creating floating cities on the world’s biggest ocean. It sounds like something Elon Musk might have in the works, but it’s also a thought-provoking story about where our world might be headed.
Unlike many celebrity novelists, Graham Norton has proven he is the real deal when it comes to writing. FRANKIE (Coronet, €15.99) is Norton’s fifth novel. It tells the story of an elderly woman looking back on her life and recounting tales to her young male Irish carer. Through Frankie’s recollections, we learn about her life in post-war Ireland, and her experiences as an immigrant in New York, all told in Norton’s warm and heartfelt style. It’s a moving story about how every life, no matter how big or small, is intensely felt by each of us and how human connection is at the heart of everything.
Another Irish powerhouse, Cecelia Ahern, is back with a new novel, INTO THE STORM (Harper Collins, €15.99). Enya, a middle-aged doctor, is struggling with her busy life. On a stormy night, she stops to help with a hit-and-run accident. She saves the young boy’s life, but the experience throws her own life into turmoil. She takes a job in rural Ireland, leaving her husband and son in the process, in an attempt to gain some understanding into her own life. A character that will resonate with many women.
Michael Connelly is one of the best crime novelists writing today. The former Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist has created many beloved characters, including LAPD detective, Harry Bosch, and Lincoln lawyer, Micky Haller. His latest novel, THE WAITING (Orion, €17.99), sees detective Renée Ballard investigating a cold case. When a young man is arrested, his DNA links him to Ballard’s 20-year-old case; a notorious serial rapist who terrorised LA before disappearing off the radar. Now, detective Ballard finally has the evidence she needs to make an arrest. But it’s never as straightforward as that with a Connelly book. Ballard drafts in Harry Bosch to help her, while Harry’s police officer daughter, Maddie, has her own reasons for getting involved with the case.
Irish writer Martina Devlin is best known as an incisive columnist, but she is also a novelist and her second historical novel, CHARLOTTE: A NOVEL (The Lilliput Press, €16.95) tells the story of Charlotte Brontë’s life through an Irish lens. Brontë spent a brief time in Ireland honeymooning with her Irish husband, Arthur Bell, but she died nine months into their marriage. Bell eventually left England and returned to Ireland, where he married his cousin, Mary Nicholls. Nicholls had been one of the people who originally met Brontë on her honeymoon trip to Ireland all those years before, so Devlin uses this character to give a fresh perspective on the story of one of literature’s most fascinating writers.
Japanese writer Yoko Tawada was made famous by her novel, The Bridegroom Was A Dog, but she also wrote a much-loved book about a group of friends called Scattered All Over The Earth. In SUGGESTED IN THE STARS (Granta, €13.92), she returns to the characters of Hiruko and friends, as they search for someone who speaks Hiruko’s native language. When they finally find a sushi chef who knows the language, they discover he has lost the power of speech, and they set out to help him regain his voice.
With over 100 young adult books under her belt, Jacqueline Wilson is an undisputed queen of teen fiction, who tackles all sorts of taboo issues. Many of Wilson’s original readers are now in their 40s, so it makes sense that Wilson has written her first novel for adults using some of her most beloved teen characters. In THINK AGAIN (Bantam, €16.99) Ellie, Magda and Nadine (from the Girls series) are still friends. Ellie lives in a small flat with her 19-year-old daughter Lottie and their cat Stella. As Ellie turns 40, she knows that she is lucky in her life, but she is also lonely and longs for something exciting to happen. A must-read for fans of the original books.
I couldn’t sign off this month without paying tribute to the cultural icon that is Ross O’Carroll-Kelly. Created by Paul Howard, the final book in the Ross series, DON’T LOOK BACK IN ONGAR (Penguin Sandycove, €16.99), is out now. We look forward to seeing what Paul Howard does next.
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