Jennifer McShane recommends your next unputdownable read.
In the dystopian world of 2233 in Hackney, an extraordinary woman named Jones, adorned with a plethora of tattoos, enters a tattoo parlour not to merely ink her body further, but to weave her life’s tapestry through a delicate line of ink and blood, creating a remarkable map on her skin, “a cinema screen” of stories. But where will the map lead her? Each one is a doorway she “fell” into by accident in a life past and present. We follow her as she recounts rememberings from INCEL murder to gender modification, slowly realising her mysterious ties to the woman inking her tattoos. Award-winning poet Joelle Taylor’s debut novel is an electrifying foray into fiction.
Feral by Gabrielle Filteau-Chiba, €13, Blackwell’s
Raphaëlle, a self-reliant forest warden, lives in solitude with her loyal dog, Coyote, deep in the wilderness of the Canadian forest. Fiercely independent, estranged from her family and cut off from civilisation, she is always armed, protecting herself from bears and other wild animals, and protecting them from the “poachers”. Soon Raphaëlle’s life of peace and quiet is disrupted when her dog is found severely injured. It’s not long before she realises she herself has become the prey of the forest’s ultimate predator – but this time, it’s no animal. Gabrielle Filteau-Chiba’s Feral is an absorbing eco-thriller with an arresting protagonist – you won’t be able to put this one down.
Green Dot by Madeleine Gray, €16.99, Dubray Books
Hera is in her mid-twenties and is trying to kick and scream a life for herself into existence. She starts a soulless office job and despairs, but her life gains more colour when she meets Arthur. He’s older and Hera used to date women, but drawn to a glimpse of another life, she’s euphoric, and neither detail matters. The fact that Arthur is married is, she decides, merely an obstacle. Until it’s not. Madeleine Gray’s brilliantly sharp Green Dot wrenchingly captures what so many of us yearn for: to be loved in the eyes of another for who we are. You’ll expect predictable events to follow – and they do – but it’s a book so hilariously real and devastating, you’ll never stop hoping (or reading).
Ava Anna Ada by Ali Millar, €27.54, Dubray Books
In Ali Millar’s sumptuous debut Ava Anna Ada, Anna and Ava meet on a dry, sweltering day where heat takes all oxygen out of the air. Anna is kicking a dog. Ava is compelled to walk towards her. Anna longs to be with Ava, she’s so like Ada, the daughter she lost. Well, so much and not nearly enough like Ada. Ava, in turn, is intrigued by Anna. She can’t see through her. But she tries too hard to be like Ada. And so, both women are drawn together by grief, obsession, loneliness – by a need for something else. Over the course of a week, they become caught up in each other’s claustrophobic worlds – only sure that things can’t end well. A gripping read tinged with lust, malice and foreboding. Millar is one to watch.
Night Swimmers by Roisin Maguire, €16.99, Dubray Books
In Night Swimmers by Roisin Maguire, we meet Grace. She lives alone in Ballybrady, a small, picturesque village on the east coast of Northern Ireland. The village is all she has known her whole life – bar a traumatic London stay in the 1980s – and she fills her days with hobbies and watching the tourists come and go. One of these tourists is Evan, taking a “forced” holiday from his life following the death of his infant daughter. He’s there a week when lockdown hits and meets Grace, who saves his life. His troubled son arrives and all three are forced to cocoon and confront demons – and the life they really want. An utterly charming take on community and connection.
This Plage of Souls by Mick McCormack, €16, Tramp Press
Mike McCormack’s absorbing This Plague of Souls, is a mystery that demands the reader’s attention. Nealon has just been released from prison. He returns to his house in Co Mayo to find no trace of his wife, Olwyn, and son, Cuan – the house is dark and empty. His only company are vaguely threatening phone calls from a stranger. He tries to settle in, calling his wife, never encountering a soul (his name spells a telling hint) while memories slowly start to return. He’s baffled, then afraid as he listens to news bulletins and radio clips, making his way to get answers, a slow dawning creeping over him. The Irish novelist masterfully knows how to draw you in; revealing just enough breadcrumbs to keep up the intrigue. His best yet.
“Reading a good book is a celebration of the human spirit." – Seth Godin
Stories worth celebrating
Six engrossing stories that raise a glass to the big and small moments in life.
Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving Before the Coffee Gets Cold explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? What would you say to your sister for the last time? To the man who broke your heart? It’s a heart-warming read that celebrates our pasts (for better or worse) while encouraging us to live in and appreciate the present.
Home Kitchen by Donal Skehan, €21.99, Bookstation
Master of comforting, delicious cooking, Donal Skehan’s Home Kitchen celebrates great food we can easily (we hope) prepare in our own kitchens. He shows us how he cooks for his family and what inspires him – from his granny’s handwritten recipes and his Irish heritage with simple, fuss-free meals. It’s a recipe book for all days of the week, with chapters such as make-ahead Sundays, everyday dinners, weekday rush, and slow-cooking weekend wins.
Modern Love edited by Daniel Jones, €13.83, Blackwell’s
Modern Love, edited by Daniel Jones, started off as a popular New York Times series which required Jones to read other people’s love stories for a living. Loving well requires that you be vulnerable, generous and wise, he writes. From tales of devastating heartbreak to life-changing connection, finding love, losing love or trying to keep love alive are among our greatest challenges in life, but this book is a reminder of why we keep trying.
The Lamplighters of the Phoenix Park by Donal Fallon, €14.99, Chapters
The Lamplighters of the Phoenix Park shines a light on the enduring significance of Dublin’s Phoenix Park, intertwining historical events with the daily life of the Flanagan family, who’ve lit its gas lamps for over a century. Historian Donal Fallon offers a unique perspective on what is a cherished space. Through captivating photographs and personal anecdotes, the book commemorates the park’s central role in Irish identity.
The Hike Life by Rozanna Purcell, €18.99, Easons
Rozanna Purcell’s The Hike Life revels in the joy of the great outdoors. Rozanna journeys through Ireland and shares 50 of her favourite hikes, from Donegal to Kilcash. Each hike includes levels of difficulty, all the details you need to know about the trail, where to get the best views along your journey and practical tips for the outdoors. Be you a beginner or intrepid explorer, this is an essential guide.
Making Babies by Anne Enright, €13.04, Dubray Books
In Making Babies by Anne Enright, she is as honest about the highs of motherhood as she is about its traumas. Enright’s autobiographical essay series about the shocks and rewards of motherhood accepts first that getting pregnant and going through labour can be – and is – a scary, rather odd thing. Are we all just making it up as we go along, stumbling and navigating parenting and motherhood? Regardless, we’re all in it together which is perhaps the greatest comfort of all.
The book that changed me
Jacqueline O’Mahony is from Cork, Ireland. She has worked as a writer, editor and stylist and has released two novels. Here she shares the book that changed her.
I came across The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain when I was a bookish twelve-year-old, reading my way through my local library. I picked it up because it was set in America, and I was hungry to read American voices.
It changed me because of the language it’s written in. Hemingway said that all modern American literature comes from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. There was nothing before it, he said, and there has been nothing as good since. Twain used local dialect: he wrote in the way that the people of the time spoke. “‘De bes’ way is to res’ easy en let de ole man take his own way,’ says Jim. ‘Dey’s two angels hoverin’ roun’ ‘bout him. One uv ‘em is white en shiny, en ‘tother is black’.” To twelve-year-old me, Jim’s speech was as strange and as unknowable as Jim himself, but as I read on, I saw that understanding one meant comprehending the other. Twain was showing us Jim’s character through his speech, I saw that Jim’s speech was his character, his world, and all that informed it. One illuminated the other. Style could be content, I understood, and content, style. Twain taught me that.
To this day, the book still impacts me because of what it says, and how Twain says it. It closes with Huck Finn deciding it’s time “to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest” and that’s been the driving force of my life, even before I knew it.
This article was originally published in the winter 2023 issue of IMAGE Magazine.
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