From new Sally Rooney, Graham Norton, and Richard Osmond titles to a collection of stories on sex, intimacy and desire by Gillian Anderson, here are the book releases coming your way this September.
The Life Impossible, by Matt Haig
3 September, Viking Books
When retired maths teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan. Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past. Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.
Mad, Isn’t It?, by Emma Doran
3 September, Gill Books
On a solo trip with her best friend to a Wexford caravan park, a barely 18-year-old virginal (ish) Emma Doran discovers it only takes one time to change your life forever and end up covered in stretch marks. Finding herself preparing to do her Leaving Cert in a maternity school uniform, hopes of a glittering acting career are derailed. On the verge of turning 30, an opportunity arises, and Emma finds herself back on stage again. A hilarious and moving story about life, friendship, (young) motherhood and taking risks, this memoir is an absolute must read.
Our London Lives, by Christine Dwyer Hickey
5 September, Atlantic Books
In the vast and often unforgiving city of 1979 London, two Irish outsiders seeking refuge find one another: Milly, a teenage runaway, and Pip, a young boxer full of anger and potential who is beginning to drink it all away. Over the decades, their lives follow different paths, interweaving from time to time, often in one another’s sight, always on one another’s mind, yet rarely together. Forty years on, Milly is clinging onto the only home she’s ever really known while Pip, haunted by T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, traipses the streets of London and wrestles with the life of the recovering alcoholic. And between them, perhaps uncrossable, lies the unspoken span of their lives.
Playing Dead, by Robert Sheehan
5 September, Penguin Books
Robert Sheehan shares intimate reflections on his search for purpose, looking back at the adventures – and misadventures – of his life so far, and sharing the profoundly transformative lessons he has learnt along the way. Meditation is at the heart of Robert’s route to spiritual awakening. A meandering memoir reflecting a rich tapestry of experience, uncovering how spirituality has become his anchor in the constant moving tide, the book combines storytelling with letters, poetry, childhood memories and thoughtful musings on fame.
Want, by Gillian Anderson
5 September, Bloomsbury
When we talk about sex, we talk about womanhood and motherhood, infidelity and exploitation, consent and respect, fairness and egalitarianism, love and hate, pleasure and pain. And yet so many of us don’t talk about it at all. In this groundbreaking book, Gillian Anderson collects and introduces the anonymous sexual fantasies of women from around the world (along with her own anonymous submission). They are all extraordinary: full of desire, fear, intimacy, shame, satisfaction and, ultimately, liberation. Want reveals how women feel about sex when they have the freedom to be totally themselves.
Unladylike: A History of Ladies Gaelic Football, by Hayley Kilgallon
6 September, New Island Books
A definitive history of ladies Gaelic football, from novelty act to national association and beyond, this book is lavishly illustrated and draws from national, club and personal archives. For the players, the fans, the kit-washers, the sandwich-makers and the supporters alike, and confirms the best is yet to come, Unladylike captures that unstoppable journey to becoming a national sport and so much more.
Frankie, by Graham Norton
12 September, Hodder & Stoughton
Always on the periphery, looking on, young Frankie Howe was never quite sure enough of herself to take centre stage – after all, life had already judged her harshly. Now old, Frankie finds it easier to forget the life that came before. Then Damian, a young Irish carer, sparks a memory, and the past crackles into life as Frankie recounts the story she’s kept stored away all these years. Travelling from post-war Ireland to 1960s New York, Frankie shares a world in which friendship and chance encounters collide. A place where, for a while, life blazes with an intensity that can’t last but will perhaps live on in other ways and in other people. But as Frankie’s past slowly emerges, her spirit and endurance are revealed as undeniable… and unforgettable.
We Solve Murders, by Richard Osmond
12 September, Viking Books
Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now. Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. Then a dead body, a bag of money and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a deadly enemy?
Country Fail: Some C***’s Guide to the Countryside, by Killian Sundermann
12 September, Faber Ireland
Welcome to the countryside! A place of rolling hills, winding rivers and natural beauty. Or is it? Killian Sundermann is here to give us his deeply uninformed, highly opinionated tips for country living. He weighs in on everything from his favourite stone walls, to mountain climber’s emotional issues, and his generalised beef with farmers. After reading this c***’s guide to the countryside, you’ll never see nature in the same way again.
The Magic of an Irish Rainforest, by Eoghan Daltun
24 September, Hachette Ireland
Magical images of Ireland’s temperate rainforests meet with powerful nature writing on an astonishing journey into the wild, from the award-winning author of An Irish Atlantic Rainforest. In 2023, environmentalist and rewilder Eoghan Daltun travelled the length and breadth of Ireland photographing areas of temperate rainforest, in a bid to illustrate their beauty and immense ecological value, and to document, in almost all cases, their state of decline.
Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney
25 September, Faber & Faber
Would I be right in saying that this is the most anticipated Irish book of the year? The new title from Sally Rooney centres around a pair of brothers in the wake of their father’s passing as they grapple with their grief, relationships both new and old, and the conflicting feelings of desire and despair. The book asks the reader to reckon with how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking, and as in all of Rooney’s books, each word left unsaid drips with meaning.
Hide Away, by Dermot Bolger
27 September, New Island Books
Hidden behind the walls of Grangegorman Mental Hospital in 1941, four lives collide, all afflicted by the human cost of wars, betrayals and trauma. In this superb evocation of hidden worlds, master storyteller Dermot Bolger explores the aftershock within people who participate in violence and the fault-lines in all post-conflict societies only held together by collective amnesia.
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