Summer books catch-up: 20 of the best novels so far in 2025
There are few more enjoyable crime series characters than Detective Charlie Parker, John Connolly's former cop whose cases invariably find him knee-deep in the supernatural in picturesque Maine. This time out of the traps, he's tasked with finding an ex-soldier on the run who has apparently abducted the children of a mob boss.
2. Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way by Elaine Feeney
Elaine Feeney is one of Ireland's most talented novelists. In her third novel, Claire, moves back from London to Athenry following her mother's death, needing to care for her dying father. When her old flame moves into a house close by, it opens up a pandora's box of personal and family drama.
3. Flesh by David Szalay
Flesh is the sixth book from the Booker Prize nominee David Szalay. He writes brilliant, meandering novels. His latest story is about a teenage Hungarian boy whose life over the course of decades takes a downward spiral owing to misfortune.
4. Fun and Games by Patrick McHugh
Patrick McHugh's debut novel – following on from a well-received short story collection, Pure Gold, in 2021 – has been hailed. It follows the tribulations of a 17-year-old boy on an island off the coast of Mayo over the summer of 2009, a time of romance and ambiguous friendship.
5. Stories of Ireland by Brian Friel
If you're looking to pack something in your suitcase for holidays, look no further than Brian Friel's short story collection published this year by Penguin, which is in paperback and mercifully slim. Most of the 13 stories were published in the New Yorker in their day. Each one is a marvel.
Patrick McHugh's Fun and Games; Eimear McBride's The City Changes its Face
6. The City Changes Its Face by Eimear McBride
Eimear McBride's quasi-sequel to the brilliant The Lesser Bohemians re-unites us with the actors Eily, 20, and Stephen, 40. It's set in London in the mid-1990s. Stephen's teenage daughter has resurfaced. Something terrible has happened, which will have consequences.
7. Air by John Boyne
Air is the fourth instalment in John Boyne's elements series (following on from Water, Earth, Fire), novellas which examine abuse in different circumstances. In Air, a father, 40, is 30,000 feet above ground, in a passenger plane, flying with his teenage son. Both are trying to mend their broken lives.
8. The Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O'Connor
Joseph O'Connor returns to wartime Rome – scene for his previous novel, My Father's House, about wartime hero Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty – for a second instalment. Again, the theme is about escape lines for refugees fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe, as Contessa Giovanna Landini, member of the activist group 'The Choir', tries to evade the unwanted attention of a Gestapo chief.
9. Twist by Colum McCann
Colum McCann has a gift for storytelling. In Twist, Anthony Fennell, a journalist, in pursuit of a story to do with fibre optics, finds himself on board a boat off the west coast of Africa and in thrall to the ship's captain. When he disappears, Fennell goes hunting for him.
John Boyne's Air; Emma Donoghue's The Paris Express
10. The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue
The brilliant Emma Donaghue, author of Room and Oscar-nominated screenwriter of its movie adaptation, goes back in time to Paris in 1895 for her latest novel, a story inspired by the moments leading up to a fatal train crash, and the lives of several of the train's passengers.
11. Eden's Shore by Oisín Fagan
Oisín Fagan's second novel has been acclaimed. His character Angel Kelly is a dreamer. In the late eighteenth century, he sets sail from Dublin, via Liverpool, intent on living in a commune in Brazil but ends up, unwittingly, in the middle of the slave trade, a mutiny and a colonial dispute, amongst other capers.
12. The Dark Hours by Amy Jordan
Amy Jordan's crime novel, The Dark Hours, has been lauded by the New York Times. In 2024, Julia Harte, a retired Garda detective, gets a call from her old Superintendent. Two women have been murdered in Cork, in identical circumstances to a case she worked on 30 years earlier, forcing Julia to tackle some demons and hunt down a vicious serial killer.
Amy Jordan's The Dark Hours; Patricia Scanlan's City Girls Forever
13. City Girls Forever by Patricia Scanlan
The first three books in the City Girl series by the popular Patricia Scanlan were written in the 1990s. Dubliner Devlin Delaney and her best friends, Caroline and Maggie, return in middle age for more adventure and heartbreak, weighed down by their blended families, aging parents and sibling rivalries, but buoyed by friendship.
Some of This is True by Michelle McDonagh
14. Some of This Is True by Michelle McDonagh
On a January morning, a body is discovered at the bottom of the Wishing Steps at Blarney Castle. The mother of the dead tourist girl, who came to Ireland looking for her father, travels over from Boston. She's convinced her daughter's death wasn't an accident, setting in train an investigation that divides the local community.
15. The Bureau by Eoin McNamee
The Bureau is perhaps Eoin McNamee's most personal novel yet, as it features his father as a central character in the action. It's a story of love and death during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, set along the border involving the vivacious Lorraine and Paddy, who's caught up in smuggling and money-laundering.
Cork Fiction Highlights
William Wall's Writers Anonymous; Catherine Ryan Howard's Burn after Reading
1. Writers Anonymous by William Wall: During the pandemic lockdown in 2020, Jim, an Irish novelist, organises an anonymous online writers group to pass the time. Things get messy when one of the writers starts drip-feeding him details about the suspicious death of Jim's childhood friend, which draws the reader back into the teenage world of a seaside Irish village in 1980 and a crime that must be resolved. A magnificent mystery novel.
2. Camarade by Theo Dorgan: Poet and writer Theo Dorgan has just released a philosophical thriller. A teenager abandons his life in Cork, having killed a policeman in a revenge plot. He flees to Paris, during a time of tumult, May '68 and camaraderie. Several decades later, he begins writing his memoir, which forces him to address the seminal event in his life.
3. Burn After Reading by Catherine Ryan Howard: Catherine Ryan Howard's novels are always page-turners. In Burn After Reading, Emily, a ghostwriter, gets a gig working on the book of a possible murderer who might be about to admit his guilt. Emily harbours her own secret, one of many twists in this tale.
Catherine Kirwan's The Seventh Body; Louise Hegarty's Fair Play
4. The Seventh Body by Catherine Kirwan: Excavation comes to a halt on a Cork building site when six bodies are discovered. Therein lie the remnants of men from centuries ago. When the remains of a seventh person, a female less cold in the grave, emerges, a historical find turns into a murder case Detective Garda Alice McCann is desperate to solve, despite interference from her superiors.
5. Fair Play by Louise Hegarty: Louise Hegarty grew up in Glanmire, Co Cork. In her debut novel, a group of friends gather on New Year's Eve 2022 to celebrate Benjamin's birthday with a murder mystery-themed party. Friendships and affairs blossom and fray as the night unfolds. In the morning, they wake to find Benjamin is dead and so begins the real murder mystery investigation.
Next week: 20 non-fiction tips
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Irish Examiner
7 days ago
- Irish Examiner
A good read guaranteed with our top picks for summer
For the middle-aged holidaymaker who isn't averse to nostalgia Geoff Dyer is one of the most idiosyncratic writers around, but his latest book keeps it simple. Homework is a memoir of Dyer's youth in England in the 1970s, which means it will resemble computer code for younger readers but will be welcome nostalgia for the older cohort. For the history-loving centrist No shortage of options here — traditionally a crowded field and this year's no different. We recently reviewed Philippe Sands latest book, 38 Londres Street, a fitting companion to the gripping East West Street and The Ratline. It's a slight diversion from Sands' usual stomping ground, the Second World War, but no less entertaining for all that. For the person who really loved Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in that movie Certain periods of history acquire legendary status, and that's certainly true of the 60s in a certain part of New York City. Earlier this year, we had a look at Talkin' Greenwich Village: The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America's Bohemian Music Capital by David Browne, and its account of the tumultuous period which led to a creative explosion across a variety of musical genres. It will surely become the definitive account of that era. The answer may not just be blowin' in the wind, but written in this book. John Boyne's 'Air' at under 200 pages, makes for a short and satisfying beach read. For the completist who's nearly there with one writer's work John Boyne recently brought his ambitious Elements series to an end with Air. While the subject matter may seem on the serious side, he brings his customary flair to this book which, at under 200 pages, makes for a short and satisfying beach read. For the person keen to know what journalism was like in the great old days The name may not ring many bells now, but there was a time when Irish journalist EJ Dillon was known all over the world, and no wonder. He was present for the assassination of a Russian tsar, the Dreyfus trial, the Spanish-American war, and the Paris Peace Conference. He counted Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as acquaintances and his personal life was equally eventful. Kevin Rafter's Dillon Rediscovered: The Newspaperman Who Befriended Kings, Presidents, and Oil Tycoons is a meticulously researched account of Dillon's life made even more extraordinary given his humble origins in the slums of Dublin. For someone who wants a thriller for a hot day at the beach Jane Casey's track record is practically a guarantee of quality, and so it proves with her latest book, The Secret Room. Fans will rejoice as favourites DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent return to try to solve the murder of a wealthy woman in a London hotel room where she was due to meet her secret lover. A locked-room mystery executed with Casey's usual aplomb, it will have you gripped from beginning to end. Erling Kagge details the expeditions which tried — not always successfully — to make it to the top of the world. Picture: Simon Skreddernes For the person who wants to enjoy the heat by reading about the cold Nobody wants to jinx the weather, but if you want to remember what it's like to freeze, try The North Pole: The History Of An Obsession by Erling Kagge, which details the expeditions which tried — not always successfully — to make it to the top of the world. It's easier, however, than getting to the South Pole, according to Kagge. For the music fan who likes to read about someone overcoming obstacles aplenty Keith Donald is a familiar figure on the Irish music scene, but his memoir, Music and Mayhem, takes us on a journey that goes far beyond the stage and recording studio. Donald did his tours of duty on Ireland's showband circuit, as a theatre musician, session player, full-time social worker, and arts administrator, but this book also reveals his battles with addiction. An entertaining and engrossing read. For the sports fan who's also interested in 1970s Ireland There was a time when the most famous man in the world was running up and down the Dublin Mountains to get ready for a boxing match in Croke Park. This reissue of The Big Fight: When Ali Conquered Ireland by Cork author Dave Hannigan reaches beyond the square ring and into the nooks and crannies of the Ireland of 50-plus years ago to brilliant effect. For the politics addict who doesn't really want to be a fortnight without their fix The recent travails of Keir Starmer's Labour government may obscure the fact that he swept to power in a landslide, but the British prime minister is still a somewhat mysterious figure. Get In: The Inside story of Labour under Starmer by Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund is a fascinating look at the people now in charge next door. And the Corkman behind it all — the Morgan McSweeney from Macroom who masterminded Starmer's ascent to power. Our reviewer correctly questioned the depiction in this book of a young McSweeney belting a sliotar against a wall with his 'hurl'. In Cork? Surely not. Still, a good read. Catherine Kirwan on Barrack Street, Cork City, where her latest mystery novel is based. Picture: Chani Anderson For someone looking for a more accurate depiction of Cork Catherine Kirwan has been bringing her background as a solicitor to bear in chronicling the seamier side of Cork life for some time now, and her newest book doesn't disappoint. The Seventh Body has a familiar setting for Cork residents — the historic Barrack Street stretch of the city — and readers with good memories will recall the real-life inspiration for the plot. But there's something for everyone in this gripping thriller. For the high-concept crime thriller fan who likes a vicarious thrill Carmel Harrington has a well-earned reputation as a master of the emotional family drama, but her new book takes a turn into darker territory and will surely give a few shivers to vacationing parents. The Stolen Child features a child vanishing from a cruise, but the story goes much further than that enclosed setting. One to read while your children are all present and correct. For the fan of historical fiction inspired by fact Joseph O'Connor is an acknowledged master across a range of genres, and The Ghosts of Rome is a terrific portrait of Rome in the Second World War. It's the second volume in a trilogy but can be enjoyed as a standalone book. The famous Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty gives way in this book to his female co-conspirator, the Contessa Giovanna Landini. Shenanigans ensue. For the person who likes a literary biography, or reading about a literary biography The original of the species is Richard Ellmann's biography of Joyce, which looms over this genre in much the same way Ulysses looms over modern fiction. Zachary Leader, who has a fair track record in the biography trade himself, has hit upon a decent idea here with a biography of a biography. His new book, Ellmann's Joyce, is a fascinating account of how the biographer came to write his magnum opus, with quite a lot of information about Ellmann's own life shared out along the way. For the poetry lover looking for a slim volume It's been a good year for poetry, and one of Cork's finest talents, Bernard O'Donoghue, shows no signs of slowing down in his latest book. The former Oxford academic's new collection, The Anchorage, got a glowing review in these pages recently and is well worth delving into.
The Journal
13-07-2025
- The Journal
Sitdown Sunday: She turned her life story into a bestselling memoir - but was it all a lie?
IT'S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair. We've hand-picked some of the week's best reads for you to savour. 1. The real Salt Path Gillian Anderson, who plays Raynor Winn in the film adaptation of The Salt Path, stands beside the author at the premiere in Munich. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Raynor Winn's The Salt Path, telling her unbelievable life story, sold millions of copies worldwide and was adapted into a blockbuster film. When a newspaper decided to investigate her tales, they uncovered a scandal. ( The Observer , approx 19 mins reading time) Winn has since written two sequels and has a lucrative publishing deal with Penguin to produce at least one more. Five weeks ago The Salt Path reached new audiences when it was released in the UK as a film, starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, and Winn is a co-producer. Standing proudly on the red carpet outside the Lighthouse Cinema in Newquay, Raynor, 60, told TV cameras at the film's UK premiere that the experience was 'almost unbelievable'. In that moment, she and Moth seemed like the ultimate examples of British grit and perseverance. Back in Wales, Hemmings saw a very different picture. Because she knew something about Winn that almost everyone – her publishers, her agents, the film producers – had missed. She knew that Raynor Winn wasn't her real name and that several aspects of her story were untrue. She also believed she was a thief. 2. Something in the water Notorious serial killers Ted Bundy, Charles Manson and Gary Ridgway all lived in Tacoma in the 1960s. A new book examines whether lead pollution played a role in their crimes. ( The New Yorker , approx 15 mins reading time) Fraser thinks the master key is to be found in the fact that these serial killers disproportionately originated in the counties and milieu of her childhood. The area south and southwest of Seattle was home to massive ore-processing facilities, and she, her classmates, and her subjects were reared in their murky, particulate shadows. 'Spare some string for the smelters and smoke plumes,' she writes of her crazy wall, 'those insidious killers, shades of Hades.' The smelters caused a profusion of heavy metals in the region's air and water, and toxins such as lead and arsenic were found in staggering concentrations in the blood of Tacoma's postwar children. Some were merely dulled, or delinquent; a few became tabloid monsters. Bundy was the most famous figure in 'a long line of outlandishly wanton necrophiliac killers who've lived, at one time or another, within the Tacoma smelter plume.' Fraser waxes in a self-consciously Lynchian register, with stygian and hallucinatory descriptions of the Pacific Northwest. In Tacoma, she writes, it was 'as if someone had scratched through to the underworld and released a savage wave of sulfur.' 3. The Initial Teaching Alphabet Advertisement A 1966 Ladybird ITA (Initial Teaching Alphabet) book titled 'The Poleesman'. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo A generation of UK schoolchildren were left unable to read and write after being taught an alternative alphabet in an experiment to boost reading skills. ( The Guardian , approx 12 mins reading time) My mum grew up in Blackburn in the 1960s, a bright child who skipped a year and started secondary school early. She doesn't remember the details of how ITA was introduced. 'That's just what we were taught,' she tells me. 'I didn't know there was another way, or that I was going to graduate on to something else. 'I'm nearly 60, and poor spelling has dogged me my whole life,' she continues. 'Teachers always used to make jokes about my spelling, and I'd get those dreaded red rings around my work.' English was always her favourite subject, but it quickly became a source of shame. 'I remember that absolute dread of reading in front of the class, stumbling on words. And then, at A-level, I'll never forget my English teacher said to me, 'You'll never get an A because of your spelling.' That was crushing. English was the one subject I loved – I felt so aggrieved.' 4. Using AI to humiliate women A whistleblower has revealed details of how lucrative it is to run an app that uses AI to create fake nude images of women for millions of users. ( Der Spiegel , approx 14 mins reading time) Nudify apps are not hidden in obscure forums or on pornography platforms, rather they are freely available on the internet. The only limitation: Many of these services only work with women's bodies. The AI programs they use have apparently never been trained to produce naked pictures of men. Images of women in underwear are usually free, with faked photos of subjects in typical pornographic poses available for a price of just a few euros. Clothoff is one of the leading apps on the market. In just the first six months of 2024, the website received 27 million visitors, with an average of 200,000 pictures being produced by the program each day, according to the company. Thousands of women have likely become victims of the app. 5. RMS Empress of Ireland People aboard the RMS Empress of Ireland at the Liverpool harbour in 1914. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo The ship sank two years after the Titanic and had an even higher passenger death toll. In this piece, Eve Lazurus recounts the tragedy and examines the story of Gordon Charles Davidson, who reportedly swam over six kilometres and managed to survive. ( The Walrus , approx 10 mins reading time) The Storstad was on its way to Montreal, carrying more than 10,000 tons of coal. She had a reinforced hull that could slice through winter ice, and at that moment, she was headed to Father Point to collect a pilot who would navigate the ship up the St. Lawrence. Her sharp prow ripped through the Empress 's steel plates and cabins, tearing a 32.5-square-metre hole in the ship's starboard side, well below the waterline. More than 200,000 litres of water a second poured into the Empress, causing catastrophic flooding in the engine rooms and lower decks. The furnaces flooded. The power went out. The ship was thrown into darkness before most of the sleeping passengers could even grasp what was happening. Those who had managed to leave their cabins were left groping around in the pitch dark, trying to find a way out, clawing their way up the tilting stairs. Because they had boarded the ship mere hours earlier, they were unfamiliar with the ship's layout. In just thirty seconds, the Empress had taken on almost half her own weight in water. After a minute and a half, the boiler rooms were flooded with the equivalent of nine Olympic swimming pools of water. 6. The secret lives of icons From staying with Marlon Brando on his private island in Tahiti to touring with Dolly Parton and spending days with Al Pacino, Lawrence Grobel interviewed some of the most famous stars on Earth. From his diary, this is a glimpse of their candid conversations. Related Reads Sitdown Sunday: Virginia Giuffre's family share what happened in her final days Sitdown Sunday: The disappearance of a Texas student, and the online sleuths trying to solve it Sitdown Sunday: 'How many?' The mysterious heist of 280,000 eggs from the US's biggest producer ( Vanity Fair , approx 40 mins reading time) Took three days before Marlon agreed to let me turn on the tape recorder. I'd ask, 'Feel like working?' He'd answer, 'No, not really.' So, we sat and stared at the bay and talked, off the record. He'd say, 'It's all very elemental here: the sea, the sky, the crabs, the wind. If the mermaids don't sing for me here, they never will.' I joked, 'Yeah, this is the life, Marl, just sitting here in silence, in the elemental wonder of it all.' When I mentioned acting, he'd say, 'Acting bores me.' And I said, 'I know, but if I was talking to Heifetz, I'd be asking him about music, and if I was with Mickey Mantle, I'd talk to him about baseball.' And he'd respond, 'If you were with William O. Douglas, would you ask him what Marilyn Monroe thought of him?' And on it went. We ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner together, went night sailing, walked on the beach, sat on the pier under a strong moon, played chess until 1 a.m., and somehow managed to tape 15 hours of conversation that I'll transcribe myself because he spoke very softly. Not as psychological as Streisand or as playful as Parton, but it's Brando. Witty, funny, serious, and memorable. Took 68 pages of notes that I'll add to this journal. …AND A CLASSIC FROM THE ARCHIVES… Two men guard the gate to the farm near Zanesville, Ohio on 4 May 2012. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo The riveting but grim 2012 longread about Terry Thompson, an Ohio man who had dozens of exotic animals on his farm, and the night he let them all free. ( GQ , approx 56 mins reading time) A little before five o'clock on the evening of October 18, 2011, as the day began to ebb away, a retired schoolteacher named Sam Kopchak left the home he shared with his 84-year-old mother and headed into the paddock behind their house to attend to the horse he'd bought nine days earlier. Red, a half-Arabian pinto, was acting skittish and had moved toward the far corner of the field. On the other side of the flimsy fence separating them from his neighbor Terry Thompson's property, Kopchak noticed that Thompson's horses seemed even more agitated. They were circling, and in the center of their troubled orbit there was some kind of dark shape. Only when the shape broke out of the circle could Kopchak see that it was a black bear. Kopchak wasn't overly alarmed by this sight, unexpected as it was, maybe because the bear wasn't too big as black bears go, and maybe because it was running away from him. He knew what he'd do: put Red in the barn, go back to the house, report what he'd seen. This plan soon had to be revised. He and Red had taken only a few steps toward the barn when Kopchak saw something else, close by, just ahead of them on the other side of the fence. Just sitting there on the ground, facing their way. A fully grown male African lion. Note: The Journal generally selects stories that are not paywalled, but some might not be accessible if you have exceeded your free article limit on the site in question. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. 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The Irish Sun
10-07-2025
- The Irish Sun
Andy Ruiz Jr shows off unbelievable body transformation with trim figure as Anthony Joshua conqueror teases return
EX-HEAVYWEIGHT champion Andy Ruiz Jr looks like a new man as he continues his drastic body transformation. Ruiz Jr shocked the world six years ago when he stopped Anthony Joshua in the seventh round of their Madison Square Garden melee to become the first Mexican-born heavyweight champion. 4 Andy Ruiz Jr sported a fluffy physique in his stunning upset of Anthony Joshua in June 2019 Credit: GETTY 4 He ballooned up to just over 20 stone in their rematch the following December Credit: GETTY 4 But he's dropped an incredible amount of weight in recent months and looks like a new man Credit: INSTAGRAM@AND_DESTROYER13 The then 19-stone 'Destroyer' was soft around the edges, to say the least, as he scored one of the biggest upsets in modern-day boxing history . He ballooned to over 20 STONE for their rematch in Saudi Arabia in December 2019, which he lost via unanimous decision. Ruiz Jr demanded an immediate trilogy fight, saying: 'I don't want to say the three months of partying or celebrating didn't affect me. "As to tell you the truth, it kind of did. READ MORE BOXING NEWS 'There's no excuses, the partying got the best of me. The next fight is going to be a lot different. The former champion has slowly but surely been chipping away at his frame with intense training and strict dieting. And he's now sporting an almost unrecognisable physique from the one he first fought Joshua in. On Wednesday, the 35-year-old posted a mirror selfie of his much trimmer frame, which struggled to keep his shorts up. Most read in Sport JOIN SUN VEGAS: GET £50 BONUS 4 Andy Ruiz Jr has dropped a considerable amount of weight since his Battle of New York with Jarrell Miller Credit: GETTY His accompanying caption read: "The diet is hard. Slowly but surely. [A] work in progress." Ruiz Jr revealed earlier in the day that he'll be on a pre-fight camp diet for the next three weeks before getting back into the swing of things. Watch Andy Ruiz Jr accidentally punch his trainer in the head during intense training session He wrote on his story: "Gotta start now and only eat protein for three weeks. Getting ready before fight camp." Ruiz Jr's career has been incredibly stop-start since his back-to-back showdowns with AJ. He's shockingly only fought THREE TIMES in the last four years. His last outing, which took place last August, was a draw against fellow New Yorker Jarrell Miller. But judging from his recent social media activity, his ring hiatus will soon be coming to an end.
