This month’s best books

FOUR LITERARY LADY BIG-HITTERS AND THE RETURN OF A FAMILIAR FACE…

The Confession by Jessie Burton

(Picador, £16.99, out 19th September) The bestselling author of The Miniaturist and The Muse returns. Rootless Rose Simmons is desperate for information about her mother, Elise, who disappeared when Rose was a baby. Her search takes her to the reclusive novelist Constance Holden, who knew Elise better than anyone else. But is Rose ready for the truth? Jessie Burton always writes perceptively about female identity and creativity, but here, she also explores motherhood in all its guises and nuances to stunning effect.

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

(Bloomsbury, £18.99, out 24th September) Ann Patchett writes novels that quietly and thoroughly devastate the reader – in a good way. Her new novel is no exception. The Dutch House is about a brother and sister, Danny and Maeve, who are exiled from their family home by their stepmother. The siblings spend the rest of their lives unable to process their banishment or the secrets that are still hidden behind its doors.

A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier

(The Borough Press, £14.99, out 5th September)

Violet Speedwell is a ‘surplus woman’ left without matrimonial prospects after the First World War, until she leaves her home and tyrannical mother to forge a new life in Winchester. When she joins the cathedral embroiderers, she finds friendships and meets a man who’s also been left bereft by war. I tore through A Single Thread, rooting for Violet to find her happy ever after in this beautifully written, utterly immersive novel.

The Museum Of Broken Promises by Elizabeth Buchan

(Corvus, £14.99, out 5th September) In present-day Paris is The Museum Of Broken Promises, whose artefacts represent betrayals and lies. Founder and curator Laure has been inspired and scarred by her own broken promises (as a young girl she fell in love with Tomas, a dissident musician in communist, mid-1980s Prague). Can she reconcile her past in this riveting read?

Once, Twice, Three Times An Aisling by Emer Mclysaght and Sarah Breen

(Michael Joseph, £14.99, out 19th September)

Our favourite resident of Ballygobbard is back, and she’s given me an earworm! In this third instalment of my go-to-get-happy series, Aisling is a successful businesswoman, has a handsome boyfriend and her best friend, Majella, is getting married. Life couldn’t be better. But there are surprises for Aisling when she hits the big 3-0, and not all of them are good ones.