Favourite Books of 2024 - So Far

Colm Tóibín’s ‘Brooklyn’ follows Eilis Lacey, a young girl who emigrates from Ireland in search of a better future. She is then faced with a choice – duty or love. Family or her future. ‘Long Island’ picks up twenty years later. Eilis is now in her 40s, married to Tony Fiorelli, and mother to two teenagers. When issues in her marriage send her home to Ireland, she sees the life and those she left behind in Ireland when she chose to marry Tony. Eilis is surprised to find herself unprepared for the emotions that being home for the first time in 20 years unearths. We don’t know if Toibin will return to the world of Eilis Lacey, but this instalment was a beautifully written chapter in Eilis’s life, one that we are glad we got to read.

Donal Ryan’s ‘The Spinning Heart’ was released in 2012, to massive critical acclaim. The story is told through 21 voices, of those who live in a small town in Tipperary, and how the 2008 crash negatively affected their lives. Now, twelve years later, Ryan returns to these characters in Heart, be at Peace. Here he carries their voices and stories. New troubles emerge, new dilemmas for the inhabitants of this town. A dark and money-hungry criminal element spreads through this quiet town, with devastating consequences. This beautiful and moving novel, serves up heartbreak and hope in equal measure.

Andrea Mara is a powerhouse in the crime scene and Someone In the Attic is a tense, gripping psychological thriller. Anya is enjoying a relaxing bath when she hears a noise from the roof. Through the open bathroom door, she sees the attic hatch swing open, and a masked figure drops to the floor. Thirty seconds later, Anya is dead. Video footage emerges of strangers in other attics. Now the whole community is filled with fear, afraid they could be next. The thrill starts right from page one, Mara does not dilly-dally or waste a word. It gets right into the action, and maintains a fast pace and is filled with intrigue. You’ll be up all night reading this – both from the fear, and from wanting to read just one more chapter.

A hilarious, bold and original debut from Irish author Ferdia Lennon, Glorious Exploits is set in Ancient Sicily, told with a dry Irish wit and slang, full of heart and depth, brotherhood and a dash of propaganda, and a pinch on Monty Python. In the in the quarries outside Syracuse, Athenian prisoners of war have been left to die. Childhood friends Lampo and Gelon visit the quarry, trading scant food with the wasting prisoners in exchange for half-remembered snatches from the plays of Euripides. And when they learn of a new play, one that hadn’t made its way to them before the war? Well, what choice do they have but to direct the play, with the prisoners as their unwilling actors. It is as unexpected, ill-fated and hilarious as you would expect.  What could be it be a glorious disaster?

Marian Keyes might be one of the most recognizable names in Irish writing and her most well-known series follows the Walsh family. ‘My Favourite Mistake’ is the 7th instalment in the Walsh family series Anna Walsh has it all - an apartment in New York, a well-meaning partner, and a high-flying job in beauty PR. Who wouldn’t want all that? Anna - it turns out. She decides to pack it all in and move home to Ireland. But she soon learns that leaving New York does not mean leaving behind her problems. Or her mistakes. ‘My Favourite Mistake’ is filled with Keyes’s trademark dark humour, heartfelt and original writing style. It is a realistic look at a journey home and there is never a dull moment.