What I’m reading for the summer

I’m just 50 pages into John Boyne’s The Heart’s Invisible Furies, and getting a real kick out of it so far. By turns horrifying and hilarious – no mean feat for an author – it perfectly captures the stifling Ireland of the 1940s, complete with pulpitbashing priest, and I’m loving its early heroine, courageous Catherine Goggin. Next up is the new Anne Tyler. I’m salivating at the thought of Clock Dance. Since I happened on her wonderful Dinner At The Homesick Restaurant while housesitting in Zimbabwe in 1983 (long story) I’ve devoured everything she’s written. From endearingly flawed characters to compelling sagas, she can do no wrong. After that I’ll move on to Dear Mrs Bird, AJ Pearce’s debut set in wartime England. An excerpt I read transported me instantly to London in the Blitz. The author’s deft style and lightness of touch despite the grim background promises an engaging read. And keeping with the wartime theme, next up will be The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris which I’m expecting to be the more harrowing of the two wartime stories, but hopefully uplifting in parts. Plenty in that mix to keep me quiet until well into August.

■ Róisín Meaney is the author of The Anniversary, out now in paperback.