THE BEST NEW FICTION

The Museum Of You Carys Bray Hutchinson €16.99

Clover Quinn is a sunny child but she’s becoming increasingly curious about the mother she lost when she was just six weeks old. Inspired by a school trip to a maritime museum, she sifts through the jumbled hoard of her mother’s possessions in the hope of finding some answers. Bray, the author of the prize-winning A Song For Issy Bradley, is tenderly attuned to the way grief can stunt and stall lives. She’s also alive to the possibility of change. Clover and the characters who surround her are brilliantly drawn – an intriguing mixture of the infuriating and the inspirational. Compassionate and hugely enjoyable.

Eithne Farry

Sweetbitter Stephanie Danler Oneworld €16.99

Tess, the 22-year-old heroine of this earthy debut novel, arrives in New York from the Midwestern middle of nowhere. Driven by longings she can’t yet articulate, she lands a job clearing plates and filling water glasses at the city’s buzziest restaurant. Over the course of epic shifts, she acquires a palate for food, wine and people. She also becomes entangled in the lives of a seductive man and an older woman. Playful and questing, it’s an adrenalised love song to the openness of the city and its privileged enclaves; to the torrid connections and giddy independence it inspires; and to the intensity of seasons that broil and then bite.

Hephzibah Anderson