Edel Coffey ensures we won’t run out of reading material this summer …
Is there a bigger author on the planet right now than Taylor Jenkins Reid? The author of Daisy Jones & The Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo returns with her latest novel, ATMOSPHERE (Hutchinson Heinemann, €23), an epic love story set during the 1980s space shuttle programme. Joan Goodwin is a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University, and also one of the few people on earth who have been selected to train for a space mission. Each member of the group, from the lighter jet pilot to the female aeronautical engineer, has their own secrets and Joan too is discovering unimagined truths about herself. This book is classic Jenkins Reid, a love story full of distinct characters set against an iconic historical moment in time.
Love is in the air and a clutch of romance novels with real heft are released this month. Marie Rutkoski’s ORDINARY LOVE (Virago, €15.99) tells the story of Emily, who has all the trappings of a perfectly conventional life – house, husband, kids – but behind the perfect exterior she is suffering psychological torture and carrying a torch for a very old flame. When she meets her old lover, Gen, now an athlete with a bad reputation, her past and present collide.
Another captivating love story comes from Dublin author Anna Carey. Carey is already an award-winning children’s author and playwright and now she has written her debut novel for adults. OUR SONG (Hachette Ireland, €15.99) tells the story of Laura and Tadgh. Tadgh is one of the biggest pop stars in the world but once he was just a teenager busking on Grafton Street. That was 20 years ago, when Laura still had big dreams for a career in music. Now Laura works in advertising and is nursing a broken heart for more reasons than one. When she gets an email out of the blue from Tadgh’s people asking her to collaborate on an old song, one that she wrote, she has to decide whether to take a chance on her forgotten dream or play it safe. This is an absolutely gorgeous, swoony novel about lifelong connections, coping with disappointment and following dreams.
Wendy Erskine is one of the best short story writers at work today. Her collections Dance Move and Sweet Home saw her nominated for the Gordon Burn Prize and the prestigious Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award. Her debut novel, THE BENEFACTORS (Sceptre, €15.99), does not disappoint. Frankie, Miriam and Bronagh have little in common apart from the fact that their teenage sons are all accused of sexually assaulting Misty, a girl with none of the privilege that their sons enjoy. While Erskine explores the injustices of privilege and class, she is also a brilliant study of character, and despite the dark subject matter, her observations are often darkly humorous. She examines the three women’s backstories and motivations, making them utterly believable and compelling.
Another exciting debut is MISINTERPRETATION (Daunt Originals, €12.99) by Albanian-American author Ledia Xhoga. Set in present-day New York, an Albanian interpreter becomes entangled with a Kosovar torture survivor. His experiences trigger her own repressed memories and set her on a reckless course. A trip home to see her mother in Albania throws her life in New York into sharp perspective. A fascinating story that looks at family, home and the legacy of trauma.
Irish author Andrew Meehan’s new novel, BEST FRIENDS (Muswell Press, €13.99) is a heartwarming story of the power of friendship, companionship and love. It tells the story of June, a lifelong outsider who cleans houses, and Ray, who looks after the public tennis courts in Dun Laoghaire. As they become unlikely friends, they slowly discover the joy that has been missing from their lives.
Speaking of heartwarming, it’s easy to see why publishers around the world have been falling over themselves to buy the rights to Virginia Evans’ debut novel, THE CORRESPONDENT (Michael Joseph, €21.74). This life-affirming novel follows 73-year-old Sybil Van Antwerp, a charmingly cantankerous divorcée and grandmother who writes letters in order to make sense of her thoughts. Now a retired lawyer, she sits down every morning to write her missives – but there is one she never sends. When she receives letters from someone from her own past, she realises she has to face one of the most painful times of her life. Pitched as a modern-day 84 Charing Cross Road, this novel is set to become a summer hit.
Irish author Vicki Notaro returns with her second novel, LONG STORY (Penguin Sandycove, €14.99), which follows two lifelong friends, Tara, an actor, and Alex, a podcaster. When rock star Sean Sweeney publishes his memoir, revealing his past relationships with the two friends, it makes for delicious transatlantic misunderstandings. A perfect poolside read.
In thrillers, two giants of the genre are back with new work. Michael Connelly has given us detective Harry Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer and now, with his latest novel NIGHTSHADE (Orion, €22), he brings us a new character. Detective Stilwell is an LA detective who has left the big city to escape workplace politics. He is looking forward to a quiet life solving petty thefts and drunken misdemeanours on the picturesque island of Catalina. But then a body turns up in the harbour and Stilwell can’t help himself. An exciting new character from one of the world’s best crime writers.
Another writer who continues to impress is Stephen King. The master of horror and suspense has lost none of his edge over a long career. His latest novel, NEVER FLINCH (Hodder & Stoughton, €25) is a gripping double-helix-style narrative. It features King’s recurring character Holly Gibney, who is hired as a bodyguard to protect a provocative feminist speaker on her lecturing tour, and Holly’s friend, detective Izzy Jaynes who is dealing with the threat of a massacre of innocent citizens.
Irish writer Gill Perdue has earned a reputation as a sharp and stylish crime writer. Her third novel, THE NIGHT I KILLED HIM (Penguin Sandycove, €14.99) is her best yet and returns to her brilliantly ordinary female detective duo, Shaw and Darmody. Set in pitch-perfect suburban Dublin, Perdue tells the story of influencer, Gemma, whose brother Max has been missing for almost two decades. It was always assumed that Max took his own life but when his body washes up on a beach, the screws begin to turn on Gemma. A white-knuckle ride.
Finally, for fans of Wicked and The Wizard of Oz, in her new novel BEFORE DOROTHY (Harper Collins, €19.59), New York Times bestseller Hazel Gaynor has written a backstory for Dorothy’s Aunt Em. When Aunt Em finds out that her beloved sister has died and her niece will be coming to live with her, she doubts her ability to be a mother. Beautifully imagined, this story takes the reader from 19th-century Ireland to 1920s Chicago to the Dust Bowl of Kansas in Depression-era America.
THE SECRET TO SUCCESS (TAYLOR’S VERSION) Taylor Swift is obviously a pop music genius, but she might also be a business genius according to a new book by the Harvard Business Review editor, Kevin Evers. There’s Nothing Like This – The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift (Harvard Review, €20.99) explores how Swift made brilliant strategic decisions at each juncture in her career. Evers puts Swift on a par with innovators like Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos. Of course, Swift has oodles of talent to begin with, but Evers argues it’s how she makes shifts – like switching genres from country to pop early on, or gaining ownership of her music – that makes her a business genius. It’s a new and interesting take on the Swift juggernaut and it’s not just for Swifties. It’s for anyone who wants to learn how to apply Swift’s smart decision-making to their own life, business, or goals of world domination.
The novel that everyone is getting excited about this summer is NOTES ON INFINITY (Michael Joseph, €16.99), the debut from Austin Taylor. Described as Normal People (Sally Rooney) meets Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (Gabrielle Zevin), this is a love story about two brilliant Harvard students who enter the world of Silicon Valley and venture capitalism with their anti-ageing start-up idea. Taylor herself is a recent Harvard graduate and has plans to study law at Stanford. With Notes On Infinity, she has written an utterly contemporary novel about class, loosely inspired by the Elizabeth Holmes Theranos biotech scandal. Taylor not only examines women in STEM and the pitfalls of being a high achiever in a pressurised, competitive environment, but she also looks at universal themes of what it is to be human, and mortal. The novel has plenty of drama in its love story, which asks what happens to love when ambition, money and betrayal enter the equation.
You’ve probably also been hearing a lot about PARK AVENUE (Bedford Square Publishers, €14.99) by Renée Ahdieh. Ahdieh is already a New York Times bestselling YA author but this is her debut novel for adults and is being described as Crazy Rich Asians meets Succession – I would add a dash of Legally Blonde to that description. The story follows Jia Song, a junior partner in a Manhattan law firm. Jia was raised by Korean parents who ran a corner shop and she has climbed the legal ladder through grit and ambition. When she is asked to sit in on a complicated meeting regarding a billionaire Korean family, her success at the firm hangs on figuring out how to sort out the family’s problems. Definitely one to pack for the beach.
I loved Hattie Williams’ BITTER SWEET (Orion, €16.99), a love story about a young publishing assistant and a much older famous author. Charlie is just 23, and after a traumatic early loss, she is finally finding her place in the world, working in a publishing house and making real friends for the first time. She is also working with her late mother’s favourite author, Richard Aveling. Aveling is in his 50s and married. We know from the first page that something disastrous has happened and Williams keeps you turning the pages to find out how and where it all goes wrong. The most beautiful part of the novel is how Williams conveys the relationship between Charlie and her late mother, and how Charlie’s grief and love for her mother is portrayed. Brilliant characters you will fall in love with.
SLANTING TOWARDS THE SEA by Lidija Hilje (Daunt Books, €10.99) is both a love story and a political examination of what it means to grow up in a rapidly changing young Croatia. Ivona is 38 and divorced from Vlaho, the love of her life. They met in college but the pressures of a newly democratic country and the discovery of something devastating led her to end their relationship. While she is now living with her elderly father and sleeping in her childhood bedroom, Vlaho has moved on, married and had two beautiful children. When Ivona reconnects with him and his welcoming wife, she finds a bright spot in her disappointed life, but a new man disrupts the delicate balance. I found this one unputdownable from the first page.
Esther Freud is probably best known for her 1992 autobiographical novel Hideous Kinky (and for being the daughter of artist Lucian and great-granddaughter of psychoanalyst Sigmund) but she has been writing quiet and thoughtful novels for nearly 30 years. Her latest, MY SISTER AND OTHER LOVERS (Bloomsbury, €15.39) tells the story of two sisters and the power of their love for each other. The sisters had an unusual childhood with an even more unusual mother. As they grow up, Freud examines how a complicated shared childhood can affect adult lives and relationships. This is a novel that inquires deeply into the tangled nature of family.
THE EXPANSION PROJECT by Ben Pester (Granta, €16.99) is a mysterious and surreal debut novel about work, time and family in the modern world. The book begins with Tom, who loses his daughter during a “bring your daughter to work day”. When he alerts his colleagues, it seems his daughter may never have been there. Tom works for Capmeadow, a dystopian business park that is expanding rapidly and in strange ways (it reminded me of Lumon from Severance). From the opening pages there are hints that nothing is really as it seems in this story.
DON’T LET HIM IN (Century, €16.99) is the latest thriller by bestselling author Lisa Jewell, who is quite simply one of the most addictive thriller writers out there. Don’t Let Him In is her 23rd novel and tells the chilling story of a man called Nick Radcliffe, who is too good to be true. When Nina’s husband dies, Nick gets in touch with his condolences, claiming to have known her husband. The pair develop a connection but Nina’s daughter Ash is unsettled by her mother’s rapidly developing relationship with Nick, so she starts investigating. Meanwhile, Martha runs a flower shop and her husband is acting suspiciously, spending entire weekends at work, while she is at home with their baby. As with all Lisa Jewell novels, this one has more twists than a Danish pastry.
I KNOW WHERE YOU BURIED YOUR HUSBAND (Bantam Press, €21.75) is the much talked-about debut from Marie O’Hare and is being compared to Bad Sisters as it tells the story of a group of lifelong female friends who all kept a secret about the death of one of their husbands. They swore never to speak of it again but when an anonymous blackmailer gets in touch years later, the group is drawn back together to get their stories straight.
TWO KINDS OF STRANGER (Headline, €16.99) is the latest Eddie Flynn novel from Belfast writer Steve Cavanagh. It follows Ellie Parker, a feelgood influencer who is famous for her random acts of kindness. Ellie’s life seems perfect until a not so random act of betrayal costs her everything. When she performs an act of kindness for the wrong person, she becomes the victim of a cruel game. Cavanagh’s serial character lawyer Eddie Flynn comes to the rescue.
Post-pandemic fiction meets The Last Of Us in Leigh Radford’s inventive love story ONE YELLOW EYE (Gallery Books, €21.99). Kesta is a scientist who is desperately searching for a cure for a virus which has ravaged London and seen the infected rounded up and disposed of. But Kesta is hiding a massive secret – her husband was one of the last people to be infected and she has kept him hidden and sedated, tied to a bed in her spare room as she frantically works to find an antidote. But time is running out as the pressure takes its toll and her husband’s condition begins to deteriorate.
In Daria Lavelle’s AFTERTASTE (Bloomsbury, €16.99), Kostya, who is working as a dish washer in a restaurant, discovers he has the incredible ability to summon spirits through the food that he cooks. He sets out for New York with a plan to open a restaurant that will offer people closure. The only problem is he has his own ghosts to contend with, as well as falling in love with a psychic. And his culinary activities are upsetting the fine balance of the afterlife.
BONUS BOOK
Michael Fewer is an architect and academic who has written 26 books. It was while researching his book Irish Long Distance Walks that he came across many fascinating and quirky objects around the country that told their own local histories. He collected these stories in his journals until, 30 years later, he decided to collate them into a book. The result is Ireland’s Curious Places: 100 Fascinating, Lesser-Known Treasures To Discover (Gill Books, €16.99). It’s a little like an Irish version of Accidentally Wes Anderson, with its selection of unusual and charming places and objects, for example, the Victorian postbox in New Ross, Co Wexford embossed with the insignia “VR” for Victoria Regina. (After the War of Independence and the Civil War, Ireland was too impoverished to replace these postboxes so we simply painted them green.) Then there is the Little Ark bathing hut in Loop Head, Co Clare which was used as a mobile church after Catholic emancipation in the 1800s. It now sits in the Star of the Sea Church in Kilbaha, Co Clare. This book is full of fascinating places and objects, each with its own geographical and OS coordinates, and would inspire delightful day trips over the summer months.
SEE MORE: 50 Of The Best Books To Read This Summer
