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The slow and absorbing pace of Sally Rooney’s fourth novel, Intermezzo (Faber and Faber, approx €17.99) is one where the acclaimed Irish author’s skill shines. Two brothers – Peter, 32, a successful Dublin lawyer, and Ivan, 22, a socially awkward chess player – are navigating the emotional fallout of their father’s death and their messy love lives as only their grief allows. Usually confident, Peter finds things unravel as he juggles an old flame, Sylvia, and Naomi, a soon-to-be-homeless college student. Meanwhile, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman with a complex past. Rooney’s gift has always been crafting the seemingly simple interactions of, say, two people talking beneath the pressure of life-changing events – that and the realistically erotic sex scenes, of which there are plenty – and she does this and more with aplomb. Critics have called Intermezzo perfect, and as great reads go, it’s not far off.
Nothing says winter like a gripping, twisty thriller and Norwegian author and psychologist Helene Flood’s The Widow (Quercus, approx €15.99) is exactly this. Evy’s world has unravelled since the sudden loss of her husband, Erling. His death – a heart attack while cycling – leaves lingering questions, especially with no trace of his medications in his system. Now, alone in the home that never felt like hers, she feels uneasy. As a narrator, Evy is unreliable; everything is hazy, gaps in her memory. Flood is a skilled storyteller, slowly revealling details, swapping timelines, keeping tension throughout each page. Like Evy, the reader is never allowed to relax. The ending, when it comes, isn’t what grips, but the buildup is. Save this one for when there’s a real chill in the air.
Hero is given seven days by her partner to decide whether to accept his proposal. This is a man she loves. A really good man. She is sure of this and also sure she does not want to be anybody’s wife. They were best friends, a waitress and a chef, but they fell in love and moved into a studio apartment, and Hero is still unsure. So, she writes him a story. She explores marriage, love, the men she thought she loved and those she did not, not only as Hero but through myth and legend as a selkie, Odysseus, a witch and a cowgirl called Quick Fingers. Katie Buckley’s provocative debut Hero (Tinder Press, approx €16.99, out January 25) is expertly crafted; she painfully understands the intricacies of love, its floating ecstasy, unbearable weight – and what happens when we yearn to run from it.
Max, a 30-year-old poet and overpaid legal counsel, seems to be living her best life – until a fall on New Year’s Eve leaves her questioning everything. Determined to make changes, she decides to try old-fashioned heteronormativity. Enter Vincent, a corporate lawyer and hobby baker who cares for Max in ways she thought were impossible. But his traditional friends and Chinese parents never imagined him dating a trans woman, and Max struggles to fit into his world. Meanwhile, Vincent’s own baggage – memories of a gap year in Thailand and a mysterious, beautiful traveller named Alex – lurk in the background. Nicola Dinan’s brilliant second novel, Disappoint Me (Transworld, approx €14.99, out January 23), is a sharp, important read.
Set in Ireland in 1941, Dermot Bolger’s first novel in six years, Hide Away (New Island, approx €14.99), explores the aftermath of war. Inside Grangegorman Mental Hospital, four lives intertwine, each broken by different betrayals and traumas. Gus, a shrewd attendant, keeps everyone’s secrets, especially his own. Veterans Jimmy and Francis are reunited under tragic circumstances – Jimmy, institutionalised for 20 years, is haunted by his youthful killings, while Francis, once a successful businessman, collapses under the weight of atrocities and paranoia. Doctor Fairfax, who fled London after his gay lover’s death, is desperate to find purpose again. But Ireland’s code of silence surrounding its violent past looms. An engrossing tome that sheds light on Irish history and the ghosts of the past.
On a bright spring afternoon, Ciara Fay makes a life-altering decision. She grabs her daughters, leaves her home, and vows never to return. On the surface, her life seems perfect – her husband, Ryan, is a good provider from a respectable Irish family, and they have another baby on the way. But Ryan controls Ciara’s every move, erupts in unpredictable rages, and isolates her from friends, family, and work. Now, living in a hotel with her girls and facing an uncertain future, Ciara struggles to create normalcy. Meanwhile, Ryan campaigns to win her back. He never hit her and doesn’t she owe her daughters a stable home? Roisin O’Donnell’s Nesting (Scribner, approx €14.99, out January 30) is an extraordinary debut.
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2024 issue of IMAGE.
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