Short stories

49. ‘Girl, Balancing & Other Stories’ by Helen Dunmore (Hutchinson, €17) Whether musing on a portrait of John Donne or a friendship between two widows, the late, much missed Dunmore always has something worth saying.

50. ‘Property’ by Lionel Shriver (The Borough Press, €16) Funny and unnerving, this collection probes our relationship with property, from the American in Belfast who feels she owns her adoptive city to the repossessed house that seems haunted by a previous owner.

51. ‘Days Of Awe’ by AM Homes (Granta, €13.90) A shopper finds himself a presidential nominee, a conference on genocide is the catalyst for a love story... These defiantly comic stories are like postcards from contemporary America.

52. ‘Good Trouble’ by Joseph O’Neill (Fourth Estate, €16.99) Facial hair, friendship and fertility clinics all feature in these quirky, well-crafted stories. The protagonists tend to be urbanites prone to social anxiety and simmering resentments.

53. ‘Last Stories’ by William Trevor (Viking, €15.99) Trevor’s final collection is a literary masterclass. From family tensions in the kitchen of an Irish farmhouse to the musical prodigy who’s a thief, they’re compassionate and hauntingly delicate.