GET OUT A notebook and pen and get ready to get excited about all the fantastic books due out next year.
We have Irish authors, international authors, fiction and non-fiction to look forward to.
Without further ado…
Donal Ryan – From A Low And Quiet Sea
The Tipperary writer is one of the most recognisable names in fiction, and his latest novel – due out in March – is highly anticipated. From A Low and Quiet Sea focuses on three men – one of whom is from war-torn Syria – who are all searching for home. Published by Doubleday.
Leni Zumas – Red Clocks
Fans of The Handmaid’s Tale will be looking forward to this book, which will be published on 8 March. It’s about fertility and new rules put in place in the USA around abortion and single parenthood. Published by The Borough Press.
Sheila Llewellyn – Walking Wounded
Published by Hodder & Stoughton in January. This debut novel is about “the complex relationship between a soldier and his psychiatrist, set in a failing psychiatric hospital between the end of the Second World War and the founding of the NHS”. Llewellyn was born in England and now lives in Northern Ireland, and has won the P J O’Connor RTÉ Radio One Drama Award and the Silver Award for the Best Broadcast Radio Drama in the New York International Radio Drama Festival in 2012.
Hideo Yokoyama – Seventeen
This is former investigative journalist Yokoyama’s second novel, and is about a reporter named Kazumasa Yuuki, an air disaster of unprecedented scale, and and a once-in-a-lifetime scoop. Published by Riverrun in February.
Liz Nugent – Skin Deep
Irish author Liz Nugent’s second novel Lying in Wait was in the bestseller charts for two months, and hot on its heels comes Skin Deep (due out in April). It’s about a woman named Cordelia Russell, who has been posing as an English heiress on the Cote d’Azur for ten years. But then her luck runs out. Published by Penguin Ireland.
Alistair Campbell and Paul Fletcher – Saturday Bloody Saturday
Yes that’s the Alistair Campbell, former journalist and spokesman for Tony Blair and former professional footballer Paul Fletcher. Due out in February and published by Orion, this is about a football manager named Charlie Gordon, a country preparing for a general election, and one of the most dangerous political assassinations in the IRA’s history being planned in London.
Louise O’Neill – Almost Love
It goes without saying that this will be one of the most-anticipated novels of the year. Due out in March and published by Quercus, this is about a young woman called Sarah’s love for and obsession with an older man named Matthew.
Chloe Benjamin – The Immortalists
One for those who like a rich story along the lines of Manhattan Beach or The Time Traveler’s Wife. Published by Tinder Press and due out in March. In 1969, a travelling psychic tells the four Gold children the date they will die. But will her prophecies come true?
Imogen Hermes Gower – The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock
This young British writer’s debut novel was inspired by her work in museums and short stories she would write about the artefacts she worked with. This is set in 1785, and centres on the discovery of a mermaid. Published by Harvill Secker.
Eithne Shortall – Grace After Henry
Arts writer Shortall’s debut Love In Row 27 has been optioned for a TV series by NBC, and her second novel is due out this May. Grace After Henry tells the story of what happens when a woman becomes convinced her late partner has made his way back into her life. Published by Corvus.
Two titles about alcohol are due out from The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober by Catherine Gray (published by Aster), and Mindful Drinking by Rosamund Dean (published by Trapeze).
The first looks at society’s ‘drink-pushing’, with contributions from neuroscientists and psychologists. The second is more of a look at how to be more mindful about our drinking and cutting down on alcohol.
Spend too much time on your phone? How To Break Up With Your Phone by Catherine Prize (Trapeze) is out in February, and is certainly a book many of us will want to read. As you’d expect, it’s about cutting back on your phone use. Aoife McElwain’s Slow At Work (Gill) promises to be the definitive guide for those who want to be more organised, mindful and productive at work – without sacrificing their personal life.
Organised (Gill) by Sarah Reynolds (a professional organiser) is for those who just can’t get a handle on getting their life together. It will be out in January.
The beginning of a new year is when we start to think about changing things, and in March Aisling Leonard Curtin and Dr Trish Leonard-Curtin publish The Power of Small (Hachette Books Ireland) which looks at “taking tiny steps as opportunities to change your life, one decision at a time”. Good for those of us who are fearful of change.
Caroline Foran, meanwhile, brings out her follow-up to Owning It, called The Confidence Kit, in May (Hachette Books Ireland), which will offer “a practical, informative and positive take on fear”. Dr Harry Barry’s Emotional Resilience (Little, Brown) will also be one for those who have been feeling the challenges of life. It’s due out the same month.
Expect some books about the idea of family also this year – Asne Seirestad’s Two Sisters (Little, Brown) is about two young teenage girls who travel from Oslo to Syria. Henry Normal’s book A Normal Family (Hodder & Stoughton) is about a young boy with autism, and how his family deals with it. Another book about Jessie Hewitson, called Autism (Orion Spring), calls itself “the definitive guide for parents of children with autism”.
Deborah Frances-White brings out her book The Guilty Feminist (she also hosts a podcast of the same name) in June (Little, Brown), while Dr Sarah McKay will see Demystifying the Female Brain (Orion Spring) published in July. It promises to teach us “what happens to the brains of women as they cycle through the phases of life”.
Ireland’s foremost feminist historian, Margaret Ward, will be bringing out a new edition of her full-length biography of one of the most important women in Irish political life in the 20th century: Hanna Sheehy Skeffington played a leading role in the suffrage movement. Published by UCD Press.
Alison O’Reilly, a journalist and documentary maker, writes about the Tuam Mothers and Babies Home in her book The Great Shame, which centres on the story of Bridget Dolan, who entered the home in 1946. It’s due out in March, published by Gill.
Other books to watch out for:
April: Dave Rudden – The Endless King (Puffin).
January: Norma McMaster – Silence Under A Stone (Doubleday Ireland)
March: Kit de Waal – The Trick To Time (Viking)
John Connolly – The Woman in the Woods (Hodder & Stoughton)
April: Jeffrey Deaver – The Cutting Edge
May: Rachael English – The Night of the Party (Hachette Books Ireland)
Kevin Powers – A Shout in the Ruins (Hodder & Stoughton)
June: Holly Bourne – How Do You Like Me Now? (Hodder & Stoughton)
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