Literary fiction
From A Low And Quiet Sea Donal Ryan Doubleday, €18.20
Arguably the best of the new wave of Irish writers to have emerged over the last decade, Donal Ryan’s latest work concerns the stories of three male characters of vastly disparate backgrounds and experiences whose lives by a peculiar twist of fate, merge in the novel’s heartbreaking final section.
Love Is Blind William Boyd Viking £26.59
As the 19th century draws to a close, a young piano-tuner seeks his fortune in Paris. Replete with romance, musical arcana and a duel, this is old-fashioned storytelling at its finest.
Normal People Sally Rooney Faber €16.99
It’s just won the Irish Book Awards’ Novel of the Year and this tale of love and class among Trinity-going millennials looks set to be everybody’s book of 2018. Perceptive and engrossing.
The Silence Of The Girls Pat Barker Hamish Hamilton €18.20
The legend of Achilles is retold for the #MeToo era in an arrestingly blunt account of the Trojan War’s final stretch. Vivid and visceral, it’s ultimately about choosing life.
Homeland Walter Kempowski Granta €21
A Hamburg-based journalist travels to Poland and finds himself ringed by ghosts in this emotionally charged dark horse, all about the relationship between Germany and lands it once occupied. A gem.
Now We Shall Be Entirely Free Andrew Miller Sceptre €21
Beautiful sentences and thrillerlike tension drive the story of Captain John Lacroix. Haunted by his service in the Peninsular War against Napoleon, he retreats to the Hebrides with an army assassin in hot pursuit.
Transcription Kate Atkinson Doubleday €17.99
World-weary Juliet is a BBC producer in Fifties London, but like many of her colleagues she was once a spy. Now her past is stalking her. Essential reading for fans of smart, playful suspense.
The Only Story Julian Barnes Jonathan Cape €23.80
A scandalous affair in suburbia is replayed through the prism of memory. Moving, funny, with ingenious emotional intelligence, it’s one to read and read again.
Warlight Michael Ondaatje Jonathan Cape €19.60
The year’s most atmospheric novel opens in the immediate aftermath of WWII, as a 14year-old boy weaves his way through a world of secrets and lies and colourful petty crooks. Mesmerising.
The Long Take Robin Robertson Picador €19.99
A Canadian veteran of Normandy’s D-Day landings washes up in Manhattan and then travels to LA in search of a missing part of himself. Hardboiled journalism, McCarthyism and movies make for a hypnotic cocktail.