A collection of powerful work from Michael D. Higgins, a memoir from Cher, and new titles from John Boyne and Murakami are among the best book releases coming this November…
Fire, by John Boyne
7 November, Doubleday, Penguin Books
The next elemental title from internationally bestselling Irish author John Boyne comes in the form of Fire, a challenging and visceral narrative that asks the question: can one cataclysmic moment turn someone into a monster? Taking the reader on a chilling, uncomfortable but utterly compelling psychological journey to the epicentre of the human condition, asking the age-old question: nurture – or nature?
On the face of it, Freya lives a gilded existence, dancing solely to her own tune — but it wasn’t always this way. Hers is a life founded on darkness. Did what happened to Freya as a child one fateful summer influence the adult she would become – or was she always destined to be that person? Was she born with cruelty in her heart or did something force it into being?
Weird Ireland, by Brinsley McNamara
7 November, Hachette UK
A hill that cars roll up. A bridge that plays music. A chair to cure madness. An underworld gateway. Bizarre foods, films, phrases and creatures. Welcome to Weird Ireland. In a journey across the island, Brinsley McNamara—curator of the popular social media channel Weird Ireland—shares his oddity obsession to bring you an off-the-beaten-track account of unique Irish wonders.
From UFOs and fairy forts to lake monsters and healing rocks, from standing stones and moving statues to fizzy drinks and fast food, Weird Ireland is a book to be cherished by all seekers of the strange, rare and peculiar.
To Die For, by David Baldacci
7 November, Pan Macmillan
The bodyguard becomes the hunted in To Die For, the electrifying third Travis Devine thriller from bestselling author David Baldacci, following The Edge and The 6:20 Man. When Dwayne and Alice Odom are killed, the police report states clearly that it was a drug overdose. So why is their daughter, who was there when they died, claiming that’s not the truth?
Betsy Odom doesn’t trust the police but when she finds herself in the FBI’s custody after her parents’ deaths, she knows she has to be careful. Her uncle wants to adopt her, but his criminal connections mean the authorities aren’t so sure. Enter Travis Devine. Trying to escape a skilled predator who wants him dead, Devine finds himself as Betsy’s bodyguard.
Don’t Look Back, You’ll Trip Over, by Michael Caine
7 November, Hachette UK
The Hollywood screen legend brings his wit, insight, entertaining stories and wisdom to answer questions about every aspect of his long life – inspiring us all to Be More Michael Caine. An iconic book, from one of our best-loved actors: this is Michael Caine at his very best.
“I’m always asked questions – by fans, by other actors and friends, by my grandchildren. They want to know how I’ve lasted so long, how I handle fame, why I chose to do some of my films, which films and actors I like best and so forth. Over a long life, I’ve learnt a lot and had the opportunity to reflect. I’ve seen a new generation grow up, among them my own grandchildren, facing the world with all its challenges and problems,” Michael says. “I hope [this book] helps them to be optimistic – and shows that anyone can blow the bloody doors off.”
States of Play: How Sportswashing Took Over Football, by Miguel Delaney
12 November, Seven Dials
States of Play is a definitive account of how sportswashing and capitalism have taken over modern football. A compelling expose into the world of modern football, the organisations, individuals and clubs who own it, and what it means for the future of our global sport, the book has been described as authoritative, riveting, and eye-opening as it reveals how the sport has been taken away from the fans and is now a tool for the world’s elite.
Journeying from Abu Dhabi to Newcastle, and onto London, Paris, Moscow and New York in search of the answers, Miguel Delaney follows the threads that surround the allegations of sportswashing and misconduct in the beautiful game. The result is an exploration of how European football clubs have been bought by some of the world’s wealthiest businessmen and state-backed corporations.
Revolutionary Times – Ireland 1913-23: The Forging of a Nation, by Mike Cronin & Mark Duncan
15 November, Merrion Press
Revolutionary Times is an illustrated coffee-table book chronicling the Irish revolutionary period, based on the hugely popular RTÉ online project, Century Ireland. Spanning a pivotal era marked by the Dublin Lockout, the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the birth of the Irish Free State, Revolutionary Times captures the full complexity of this transformative decade through contemporary-style reportage, timelines of key events and insightful essays.
Meticulously researched yet accessibly written and beautifully presented, this book offers a rich, nuanced portrait of a nation on the brink of a new dawn. This is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the tumultuous forces that shaped modern Ireland.
Forest of Noise, by Mosab Abu Toha
15 November, Penguin Random House
A new collection of poems about life in Gaza by an award-winning Palestinian poet, Forest of Noise invites a wide audience into an experience that defies the imagination—even as it is watched live. Abu Toha’s poems introduce readers to his extended family, some of them no longer with us. This is an urgent, extraordinary, and arrestingly whimsical book. Searing and beautiful, it brings us indelible art in a time of terrible suffering.
Barely thirty years old, Mosab Abu Toha was already a well-known poet when the current siege of Gaza began. After the Israeli army bombed and destroyed his house, pulverising a library he had painstakingly built for community use, he and his family fled for their safety. Not for the first time in their lives.
Power to the People, by Michael D. Higgins
21 November, Hot Press Books
An essential read for anyone interested in Ireland as it was – and in the exciting new country that emerged in the 21st Century. Michael D. Higgins is one of the most brilliant and influential voices in Irish culture and political life over the past 40 years. He was elected President of Ireland in 2011 and again, in 2018. During his ten years on the frontline with Hot Press, the future President wrote passionately about many of the most important issues affecting Ireland – and the world at large. It was visionary, sometimes emotional, often provocative, egalitarian stuff that pulled no punches.
This collection, featuring a carefully chosen selection of his powerful work for Hot Press, is packed with penetrating insights and wonderfully vivid writing – on women’s liberation, Gaza, US foreign policy, war and peace in Africa, the democratic deficit, sustainability and LGBTQI+ rights. Way ahead of its time in so many ways—and often very funny—it made for radical and inspiring reading then and even more so now, as it underlines the exhilarating reality that it really is possible to make positive changes, even in the most monolithic, conservative societies.
Cher: The Memoir, Part One, by Cher
19 November, Harper Collins
After more than seventy years of fighting to live her life on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her true story in intimate detail, in a two-part memoir. Her remarkable career is unique and unparalleled. The only woman to top the Billboard charts in seven consecutive decades, she is the winner of an Academy Award, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, and an inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who has been lauded by the Kennedy Center.
With her trademark honesty and humour, Cher: The Memoir traces how this diamond in the rough succeeded with no plan and little confidence to become the trailblazing superstar the world has been unable to ignore for more than half a century. It is a life too immense for only one book.
The City and Its Uncertain Walls, by Haruki Murakami
19 November, Harvill Secker
From the author of Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore comes The City and Its Uncertain Walls. A love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, this novel is a parable for these strange times by the inimitable Haruki Murakami.
When a young man’s girlfriend mysteriously vanishes, he sets his heart on finding the imaginary city where her true self lives. His search will lead him to take a job in a remote library with mysteries of its own. When he finally makes it to the walled city, a shadowless place of horned beasts and willow trees, he finds his beloved working in a different library – a dream library. But she has no memory of their life together in the other world and, as the lines between reality and fantasy start to blur, he must decide what he’s willing to lose.
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