Literary fiction

Shadowplay Joseph O’Connor Harvel Secker €13.49 (HB)

Winner of the Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, this whimsical take on Bram Stoker’s life and his relationships with two stars of the Victorian theatre was warmly-praised.

Akin Emma Donoghue Picador €14.99

This novel charts an intriguing family journey of an elderly chemistry professor Noah, who is obliged to take temporary guardianship of a great-nephew he has never met.

Night Boat To Tangier Kevin Barry Canongate €16.99

Two ailing gangsters, a missing girl and a hint of the occult . . . A beautifully written two-hander, which unfolds on the

Algeciras ferry terminal in

Spain.

Girl Edna O’Brien Faber &Faber €14.99

Edna O’Brien’s latest imagines the lives of the Boko Haram girls. Set in the deep countryside of Nigeria. It’s a brutal story of survival.

The Testaments Margaret Atwood Chatto & Windus €18.99

The sequel to Atwood’s The Handmaid’s

Tale, left, was joint winner of this year’s Booker Prize, and is as tense as any thriller. Funny, fierce and chilling as ever.

The Nickel Boys Colson Whitehead Fleet €19.99

In Sixties Florida, two black teenagers, have opposite responses to a beating they’re dealt in reform school in this page-turning exploration of America’s troubled past. Watch out for a devastating plot-twist.

The Dutch House Ann Patchett Bloomsbury €16.99

Expelled by their mean stepmother from their father’s home, Danny and Maeve wander through their adult lives like a middle-aged Hansel and Gretel.

tense: Elisabeth Moss in the TV version of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale