CONTEMPORARY
THE F***-IT LIST by John Niven (Heinemann €18.99)
HILARIOUS and horrifying in equal measure, this compulsive revenge novel is set in America in 2026, during the first term of Ivanka Trump’s presidency after two of her father’s terms.
Former newspaper editor Frank Brill is a kind man in unimaginable pain since the tragic, pointless deaths of his wife and children — which are linked directly to Trump administration policies.
When Frank is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he compiles a hit list of those he blames for murdering his loved ones, spraying bullets and brains around as he exacts vengeance.
Tension ratchets further when a paedophile policeman gives chase.
Niven vividly portrays the terror of a world where children are encouraged to take guns to school and protesters get so badly beaten it’s a wonder they bother.
Mind-blowingly brilliant.
THE RIVER HOME by Hannah Richell (Orion €20)
SISTERS Eve, Lucy and Margot grew up at Windfalls, a beautiful English country house by a river.
Their parents are bestselling celebrity novelist Kit and frustrated playwright Ted, who enjoyed early acclaim but whose crippling writer’s block increased in tandem with his wife’s success.
Kit is more interested in writing than being a mother, and when Ted leaves her for another woman, neither notices how much Margot is suffering.
After a terrible scene, she leaves home and remains estranged from her family for eight years.
But when Lucy begs for help with her shotgun wedding, Margot returns and old secrets and unresolved resentments rise to the surface. Only by confronting these longburied issues can they move beyond their past trauma. I raced through this.
IN FIVE YEARS by Rebecca Serle (Quercus €18)
DANNIE is a high-flying corporate lawyer used to setting life goals and achieving them, in everything from restaurant reservations to her career and relationship.
She gets engaged to kind, steady, equally high-achieving David.
But that night, Dannie has the most vivid dream, seeing herself in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, with a different man. It’s the same December evening, but five years in the future.
Unsettled, she visits a therapist, but after only one session shuts the image into the back of her mind. There it remains until she meets the man from her dream in real life — on the arm of her childhood best friend, Bella. This love story is original, beautifully written and often surprising.