Our recommendations this month …
Rupert Thomson’s DARK IS THE MORNING (Head of Zeus, €22), is as compelling as any of his 13 previous novels. I first read the English writer’s Air and Fire over 30 years ago and was instantly hooked. In 2013, David Bowie cited The Insult (1996) as one of his top 100 must-read books of all time. Set in a small Italian town, Dark is an unsettling fable of a romance infected by obsessive jealousy. Themes of love, magic and madness play out with Rapunzel vibes, wreathed in woodsmoke. Thomson talks of capturing an “undertow – the flow of something fresh and unexpected” in his writing. Here he takes us inside a troubled mind, and conjures a dreamlike atmosphere, “vivid yet ephemeral”. Next I’ll read his memoir, which won the Writers’ Guild Non-Fiction Book of the Year award in 2010.
The eye-catching cover is not the only striking thing about HONEY (HarperCollins, €17.50) by Imani Thompson. Cambridge student Yrsa is firmly in the messy/unlikeable zone of female narrators. She’s dangerously bored and angry – with no moral code whatsoever. After she semi-accidentally kills someone, the scene is set for an avenging rampage. The casually savage mood is reminiscent of Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman. It’s a riot, bounding along with acerbic, biting wit. If you’re not keen on the Disneyfied female characters of romantic fiction, you’ll relish Honey, with all its vivid chaos.
THIS IS ALSO A LOVE STORY: SEARCHING FOR GOOD IN A DIVIDED WORLD (4th Estate, €22), from the award-winning author and international correspondent for The Irish Times, Sally Hayden, reflects on vital global stories, always letting the light shine in. Hayden seeks out the love, bravery and resilience in situations of the darkest adversity. Her acclaimed first book, My Fourth Time, We Drowned, won numerous prizes, including the Orwell Prize for Political Writing.
JOHN OF JOHN (Picador, €18) by Douglas Stuart is set on the white-sanded island of Harris in the Scottish Hebrides, as Cal returns to the strictures of his family life. It more than lives up to Stuart’s devastating Booker-winning Shuggie Bain.
Remember the Fitzcarraldo-blue Perfection that everyone was reading last year? In a similar vein, I WANT YOU TO BE HAPPY (Faber, €19.95), the debut novel by Jem Calder, looks like one of the hot reads of 2026. Two aspiring writers, 20-something Joey and 30-something Chuck, meet in a bar, and this light, sharp comedy traces their situationship, age gap and attempts to counter loneliness.
Jessamine O’Connor’s debut novel, SOMEWHERE (The Lilliput Press, €16.95) follows Clodagh as she finds herself adrift in the city aft er splitting from her partner. It’s a bleak portrait of modern Dublin, with themes of addiction, isolation and survival, told with urgency, in the present tense, and Sally Rooney-style speechmarkfree dialogue. O’Connor’s elegant writing has won several fiction and poetry prizes.
THE MAKE-BELIEVE by Hannah Murray (Penguin, €20) is the compelling true story of successful but vulnerable actress Murray as she loses her grip on reality and becomes sucked into a sinister cult-like organisation. If you’ve ever wondered how cults get inside your head, this book shows you; here, unicorns and elves are real. On “wellness”, she writes: “An industry full of solutions, in eager need of a steady supply of people with problems.” The writing is dispassionate, but painfully honest and raw.
In a golden age of Irish writing talent, it’s a good time to refl ect on some of our giants, via A HOSTING: INTERVIEWS WITH IRISH WRITERS 1991-2026 (Th e Lilliput Press, €21.95) by Martin Doyle (also an Irish Times journalist), whose career has been dedicated to interviewing and championing them. Interviewees include Sally Rooney, Claire Keegan, Roddy Doyle, Colm Tóibín, Claire Kilroy, Donal Ryan, Maeve Binchy and Paul Murray.
THINGS WE NEVER SAY (Penguin Books) by Elizabeth Strout – we’d happily read her shopping list. Th is story of history teacher Artie Dam, set in Massachusetts Bay, promises to be as quietly devastating as those of Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton.
It’s been a while since Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling The Help (2009) and subsequent movie. She’s not been relaxing, though: THE CALAMITY CLUB (Fig Tree) is a mighty doorstopper to last you the entire summer.
Closer to home, OUR DEADLY SUMMER (Bloomsbury Publishing), the new venture from bestselling Aisling authors Sarah Breen and Emer McLysaght, lands at the end of this month.
OUR PERFECT STORM (Michael Joseph, €18) by Carley Fortune is the silliest book I’ve read in ages. I couldn’t put it down. Think Mills & Boon crossed with My Best Friend’s Wedding. Two childhood friends go on “honeymoon” together when one is jilted before their wedding. The worshipful descriptions of the male lead are increasingly deranged: he has a “rugged intellectual vibe”, is perceptive, toned, “horribly smart” … Not to mention other assets: “Either his jeans are working for him or he’s been doing squats.” If you can cope with all this, cancel everything. Destined for a billion beach bags. We’re betting on a movie, starring Dakota Johnson. Image; @paperback.ponderings
