It's summer holiday time and if you're looking for a book (or several!) to pack alongside your cossie and your suncream, here is our pick of the best new books out this month.
Where Are The Kings? by Donal Ryan
This has been another fantastic year for Irish storytelling, with new books from big names such as Colm Tóibín and Tana French among many others, plus dazzling debuts from new writers like Tanya Sweeney, who I know we’ll hear a lot more from. Where Are The Kings, the new novel from the always-readable Donal Ryan, cements his place among the best Irish authors.
Ryan has a talent for creating characters that readers care deeply about and 12-year-old Jack, whose mum has just died, got my whole heart. When his dad can’t look after him, Jack goes to live with his grandparents, uncles and an aunt in their noisy, chaotic home. Jack is smart, funny and heartbreakingly sad, but also unreliable and flawed. His loneliness and grief are so well written and his confusion shows in the slightly hallucinatory sentences Ryan writes.
The grief comes in jumps and starts (as anyone who’s lost a loved one knows), as Jack struggles to understand who he is now, without his mum.
The developing relationship between Jack and his teenage uncle JJ is at the heart of the book; uneasy at first, as JJ feels jealous of Jack’s arrival and the fuss being made of him, then complicated by the revelation of family secrets. Their interactions are believable, full of the teasing, swagger and vulnerability of teen boys.
The 80s smalltown Irish setting is well done, too, as is the authentic weaving in of colloquialisms. Although there are many sad moments in the novel, they’re often lightened with humour. The banter between Jack’s rough-around-theedges uncles is particularly good. Ryan’s words read at times like poetry, with stunning imagery and a rhythmic cadence. As Jack says so beautifully: ‘Every single particle in the universe exerts a force on every single other particle. Nothing exists in isolation. Every single particle that made up Mam still exists.’
Told with warmth and heart, this slim but emotionally deep novel is touching and one you can’t help but be moved by.
Tenderness by Rowan Beaird
I was sucked right in by this absorbing novel, which takes place at a wedding where everyone has a secret and disaster looms. On a remote island off the Virginia coast, family and friends gather to celebrate the nuptials – but all anyone can talk about is the bride’s recent time in a Californian cult and whether she’s really left it behind.
Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason
Mason’s last book, Sorrow And Bliss, was a huge word-of-mouth hit, selling more than 100,000 copies. Like its predecessor, this new novel is a raw account of a woman on the brink – this time, Sophie, an event organiser, recently separated and feeling a bit lost – and a deeply relatable, intimate read.
Bloomsbury Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason
Song For Another Home by Bora Lee Reed
Fans of Pachinko will love this quietly devastating historical fiction, set in Korea in the 50s. While her father and brother leave Seoul to look for work, Oksoon and the rest of her family are forced to flee when the Chinese army attacks. A fight for survival follows, as all must make difficult choices to stay safe.
A Fatal Love by Louisa Treger
This fictionalisation of the life of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK, manages to be both a gripping page-turner and a thoughtful look at the classism and misogyny of 1950s Britain. It paints a tragic and compassionate portrait of a woman who had all the odds against her.
The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian
A drama about a teenage golfer who accidentally kills a caddie and how her life changes as a result isn’t a book I’d usually choose, but this is so addictive, as Mira is put on trial for involuntary manslaughter and the veneer of innocence cracks. It’s witty, well written and so moving on the way life can turn on its head in a second.
An Ocean And A Day by Hannah Richell
When Hannah Richell met her husband, Matt, at work in her 20s, they quickly became inseparable. A move to Australia and two children later, she faces the worst day of her life when he dies in a surfing accident. By turns heartbreaking and hopeful, this beautiful memoir is a testament to the power of love.
