Edel Coffey picks the best books for holiday reading…
How we read varies with the seasons. For me, summer reading is all about headspace, stolen moments, and getting lost in a story for as long as the light lasts. It’s a time to step away from indoor pursuits and the lure of too many screens, and move outdoors with some really good books. From Marian Keyes’ My Favourite Mistake to Earth, the latest in John Boyne’s elemental series, and Jane Casey’s addictive detective novel, A Stranger In The Family, there are so many wonderful books to escape into this summer. Scroll below to see a few of my suggestions:
I adored Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s debut novel Fleishman Is In Trouble. She seems to be continuing the tradition of the great American novel through her own distinctly arch female perspective. Her second novel LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE (Wildfire, €15.99) is the perfect summer read, telling the big messy intergenerational story of a wealthy American family. In 1980, Carl Fletcher is kidnapped and held for ransom. A week later he is returned to his family. But the trauma nestles deep inside Carl, and 40 years later, he is forced to reckon with the event that has become a defining force not just in his life but in his wife and children’s lives too. Brodesser-Akner’s sharp insight is in full force as she tackles themes of family, wealth, privilege, success and failure in America.
Another Long Island novel is Colm Tóibín’s long-awaited sequel to Brooklyn. You will see LONG ISLAND (Picador, €13.99) everywhere you go this summer – on beaches and in smart hotels, on airplanes and sun loungers. You will also likely see people sniffling behind their sunglasses as Tóibín picks up the story of Eilis Lacey, 20 years on from Brooklyn. Eilis is still married to Tony and they have two grown-up children together but a knock on Eilis’ door brings unwelcome news and sends her back home to Enniscorthy, where she reencounters her old flame Jim, whose life is finally moving on. Tóibín’s ability to articulate the full spectrum of human emotion makes this a hugely moving novel reminiscent of Edith Wharton or Henry James. Quite simply superb.
Emily Henry is by now a writer synonymous with the summer read. She even has a novel called Beach Read. FUNNY STORY (Viking, €15.99) is the latest novel from this fizzy, acerbic writer and it tells the story of heartbroken Daphne, whose fiancé has jilted her for his childhood best friend, Petra. Petra’s ex Miles, meanwhile, can relate to how Daphne is feeling. When the two hatch a plan to show their exes what they’re missing, could they both end up believing the charade? A smart and enjoyable romantic read.
THE HUSBANDS (Chatto & Windus, €19.60) by Australian computer game designer Holly Gramazio is one of the quirkiest novels I’ve read in a long time. It has a highly original and entertaining concept where Lauren, a single woman, returns home one night to her apartment to find a strange man claiming to be her husband. Lauren has no idea who he is but she soon discovers that her attic is a husband-generating portal, spewing out endless potential husbands. It’s great escapist fun that also questions the idea of finding The One.
Rachel Cusk, best known for her Outline trilogy, is rightly revered for her writing. Her latest novel, PARADE (Faber, €21.75), is told over four sections with four different characters, and delves into some of Cusk’s favourite themes of art, what it is to be an artist, identity and gender, among others. Cusk’s crystal-clear prose is always emotionally confronting and psychologically complex, but always deeply thought-provoking too.
Joseph O’Neill made a literary splash with his 2008 debut novel Netherland. The book won the Kerry Prize and was longlisted for the Booker. His latest novel, GODWIN (Fourth Estate, €16.99), his first in ten years, tells the story of Mark Wolfe and his half-brother Geoff. Mark is a technical writer living in Pittsburgh, while Geoff lives in the UK and is a football talent agent who wants to sign the next Messi, a young African player known only as Godwin. As always with O’Neill, this novel explores the complexities of blended families, identity and post-colonialism, all in precise, elegant language.
Two Irish writers who both emerged from the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair competition have also just released debut novels, both written in very different Irish vernaculars. Kilkenny author Orla Mackey won the 2022 Novel Fair with her debut novel, MOUTHING (Hamish Hamilton, €16.99) a polyphonic novel that tells the story of a small rural Irish village through its inhabitants. Spanning 40 years, Mouthing is darkly funny and heartbreakingly moving at times as it takes in Ireland’s dark history and rapid social progress of the past six decades.
Meanwhile, Estelle Birdy’s RAVELLING (Lilliput Press, €18) set in Dublin’s Liberties, also uses an exuberant multi-character format to tell the stories of a group of teenage boys living in inner-city Dublin trying to negotiate their Leaving Cert, sports commitments and emotional development alongside drugs, family problems, trauma, poverty and violence.
THIS IS HOW YOU REMEMBER IT (Canongate, €14.99) is the second novel from Catherine Prasifka, who also happens to be Sally Rooney’s sister-in-law. Prasifka has a writing talent and style all of her own, as proved with her debut novel None Of This Is Serious. This Is How You Remember It is a chillingly pertinent novel about the impact of the internet on the generation who were raised with it, all shown through the experience of Prasifka’s compelling protagonist.
My personal summer reading sweet spot is literary thrillers and rising Chilean author Alia Trabucco Zerán’s novel CLEAN (Fourth Estate, €20.30) is just the ticket. Zerán was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize for her debut novel, The Remainder and has won prestigious prizes for her non-fiction too. Clean is told in the voice of Estela, the maid of a wealthy family whose daughter has died. She has worked for the family for years and in doing so has learned all of their secrets and observed every disagreement and act of unkindness. Through Estela’s account of her own story and that of the family, Zerán explores class and entitlement in a tense page-turner.
Crime queen Karin Slaughter faithfully delivers a new novel every single year and THIS IS WHY WE LIED (HarperFiction, £14.99) is her latest. It returns to her long-running characters detective Will Trent and medical examiner Sarah Linton, who are now married to each other and honeymooning in a luxury mountain resort called McAlpine Lodge. Any hopes for a peaceful honeymoon are quickly dashed when a young woman, Mercy McAlpine, is found dead. As always, embedded in Slaughter’s gripping stories are sharp analyses of misogyny and violence against women.
At a different holiday resort is Tom Hindle’s enjoyable murder mystery MURDER ON LAKE GARDA (Century, €16.99). This tells the story of the Heywood family, who have travelled to a private island on Lake Garda to celebrate their son’s marriage to an Italian influencer. But just as the ceremony is about to begin, a murder interrupts proceedings. Perfect for fans of locked-room mysteries and authors like Lucy Foley and Richard Osman.
THE WORLD’S END (Poolbeg, €16.99) is the debut crime novel from Irish author Karen Fitzgibbon. Set in a luxurious summer holiday home (the World’s End of the title), it follows the story of Grace Doran who travels to the summer house with friends but when the group take a boat trip to a nearby island, one of them doesn’t return. One year on, private investigator Lana Bowen returns to the island in an attempt to find out what happened.
Susan Muaddi Darraj is best-known as an award-winning author of children’s novels but with BEHIND YOU IS THE SEA (Swift , €22.68) she makes her fiction debut for adults. In it, Muaddi Darraj, an American-Palestinian writer, weaves the story of three Palestinian immigrant families making their way in America. The wealthy Ammar family employs young Maysoon Baladi as a cleaner for their spoiled children, while Marcus Salameh, whose aunt is married into the Ammars, is preoccupied with his sister “dishonouring” his family. An enjoyable family saga offering insights into the Palestinian immigrant experience and Palestinian culture.
Hanna Pylväinen’s novel THE END OF DRUM-TIME (Macmillan, €16.20) was a finalist for the National Book Award last year and it’s easy to see why this sweeping love story captured judges’ imaginations. Pylväinen is American with Finnish ancestry and grew up in a conservative Finnish Lutheran faith. The book is set in 1851 in a remote village in the Arctic Circle, where a Lutheran minister tries to convert the local reindeer herders. (Pylväinen spent six months with reindeer herders in Finland while researching this book.) While one senior herder converts, his son has a different type of awakening when he meets the Lutheran minister’s daughter, Willa.
In non-fiction, Nicole Louie’s debut OTHERS LIKE ME (Dialogue, €22) explores childlessness through the stories of 14 different women from all over the world. It’s also a part-memoir of Louie’s own reasons for seeking out these women – and what she has learned from them. An uplifting read about finding fulfilment outside of motherhood.
Fans of Joni Mitchell will be keen to read NPR music critic Ann Powers’ new biography, TRAVELLING: ON THE PATH OF JONI MITCHELL (Harper Collins, €16.99). Mitchell is one of the most iconic, talented and elusive musicians of the last 50 years and her singular voice and guitar playing continues to influence new generations of songwriters. Powers interviews many of Mitchell’s contemporaries, including Judy Collins and David Crosby, to give an insight into this beguiling singer, and also examines Mitchell’s development as an artist up to the present day. It’s a delight to learn more about this female musical trailblazer.
Another trailblazer about whom I will never tire of reading is Joan Didion. Cory Leadbetter was studying English in Columbia University in New York when he took on a job as assistant to an unnamed writer. The writer turned out to be Didion and the pair became so close that Leadbetter even moved in to her Manhattan apartment. In his memoir, THE UPTOWN LOCAL: JOY, DEATH AND JOAN DIDION (Fleet, €21.45), Leadbetter describes his own difficulties in life and how he coped with the death of a close friend and the imprisonment of his father for fraud. It turns out Didion was not just a great writer, but apparently a great person too.
GOOD SISTERS (Penguin Sandycove, €16) sees author Sinead Moriarty return to her characters the Devlin sisters, who also featured in previous novels Me and My Sisters and The Secrets Sisters Keep. It’s a decade on from those novels and now the sisters are dealing with the death of their mother while facing the many challenges of middle age, from juggling motherhood to looking after family and trying to be good sisters to each other. A heartwarming contemporary take on family life.
THE BOOKSHOP LADIES (Head of Zeus, €14.99) is Faith Hogan’s ninth novel, a saga of friendship, love and betrayal. When Joy receives a deathbed confession from her husband it sends her in search of Robyn, who lives in a tiny town on the west coast of Ireland. Joy’s husband was an art dealer and has bequeathed a painting to Robyn. But Joy needs to know why.
Happy reading! @edelcoffey
