Here’s what we’re reading and loving this March …
There are plenty of great reads around this spring, whether you’re into short stories, memoirs or an unputdownable novel. Especially exciting is new work from Irish writers including Colm Toibin and Mary O’Donnell. See some of our favourites below.
Rachel Taff’s debut, PAPER CUT (Atlantic, €17), is a thriller centred on a memoir, and the truth behind it. Lucy Golden has written a true crime bestseller about escaping a Californian cult as a teenager – and killing the cult leader in the process. But when her memoir comes under scrutiny, there are twists, turns and plenty of dysfunction. Fans of Emma Cline’s The Girls will love this. (In the same vein, I also recommend Lily Dunn’s mesmerising 2008 book Shadowing The Sun, set in Tuscany. Her subsequent 2022 memoir, Sins of My Father, provides the compelling real-life background.)
REPETITION (Verso Fiction, €12.75) by Booker-longlisted Norwegian novelist Vigdis Hjorth may be a slender volume, but it’s far from lightweight. When a 60-year-old woman is jolted back to her teenage years, her past comes into sharp focus with a relentless sense of foreboding. In breathless prose, the woman reexamines being a 16-year-old girl – the thrills, the fear, the smell of cherry brandy – amid themes of guilt, rejection and dark complicity. “We are tied to our family from our first breath to our last,” she writes. A short but seismic read with shades of Annie Ernaux.
Colum McCann’s recommendation drew me to Mary O’Donnell’s SWEEP THE COBWEBS OFF THE SKY (Epoque Press, €13). Its title and cover may be whimsical, but this novel is firmly rooted in reality. As an adult woman cares for her elderly, recalcitrant mother, difficult emotions surface, from resentment to grief. O’Donnell’s short stories collection, Walking with Ghosts, was published last year, and ghostly elements are still on her mind here. But what’s compelling are the relationships, delineated with unfl inching precision amid flashblacks to a troubled past: “The truth unrolls like a filthy sheet.” The pressures of being a “good girl”, sibling rivalries and challenging mother/daughter relationships are all explored, with the authenticity you’d find in a memoir. The writing has such light to it.
Also taking us back to the past is STRANGE GIRLS (John Murray Press, €20) by Sarvat Hasin. Two girls, inseparable in their teens, meet a decade later. In elegant prose, Hasin explores the intense friendships of youth and how this translates in adult life.
John Lanchester’s LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO (Faber & Faber, €22) comes seven years after his last novel, Booker-longlisted The Wall. It’s a darkly comic story of marriage, betrayal and revenge set in north London, described by Succession writer Jesse Armstrong as “a box of delights”. Check out Lanchester’s brilliant debut novel, Debt to Pleasure, too – it’s exquisitely decadent.
As she turns 80, Liza Minnelli is telling her life story in the much-anticipated memoir, KIDS, WAIT TILL YOU HEAR THIS! (Hodder & Stoughton, €18). It’s a candid tale of stardom, survival and Studio 54.
Asako Yuzuki’s HOOKED (4th Estate, €17) is the follow-up to Butter, one of the biggest hits of last year. In fact, Suzuki wrote Hooked before Butter – it was published in Japan in 2015. Translated again by Polly Barton, Hooked is far more than another striking cover. It’s the compelling tale of a Eriko, a woman who becomes fixated on the person behind her favourite blog. When Eriko contrives a meeting, and takes things beyond the screen, things become weirder. We are drawn into a darkening tale of obsession, loneliness and control, as Yuzuki explores women’s roles, friendships, modern life and the pressures on them, all with a light and clever touch. Yuzuki is a master at revealing the “unexpected depths within everyday scenes”, and telling a captivating story.
Beryl Bainbridge fans should look out for attractive Daunt Books reissues of her key works, including the 1990 Booker-shortlisted AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE with a new introduction by Yiyun Li.
Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Louise Erdrich’s PYTHON’S KISS (Corsair, €25) collection was written over the past two decades, and comes with specially commissioned artwork by her daughter, Aza Erdrich Abe.
While he’s best known for novels such as Brooklyn, Colm Tóibín is a consummate short story writer. In THE NEWS FROM DUBLIN (Picador, €20), he turns his focus on those living far from home. Most timely is the tale of an undocumented worker in San Francisco who is forced to leave the US – and his child.
Alan Bennett’s fourth collection of diaries and prose, ENOUGH SAID (Faber & Faber, €36.25), covers 2016 to 2024 (the year he turned 90), taking in lockdown, Brexit, Johnson and Trump. One can never have enough of Bennett’s acerbic, funny and wise company.
