A memoir on one woman’s descent into psychosis, an explainer of how the country works from Gavan Reilly and a new title from Elaine Feeney are among the best books being published throughout the month of May.
Ask Me How It Works, by Deepa Paul (1 May, Viking)
In the early hours of dawn in Amsterdam, Deepa Paul rises from her boyfriend’s bed. She gets dressed, slips away with a kiss and cycles home, where she is welcomed into the arms of her husband, whose contentment is mellow alongside her own. There isn’t a glimmer of shame, deception or guilt, only the honesty and compassion needed to make this kind of life possible — even if it wasn’t always this easy.
You might have questions. Whose idea was it? What are the rules? Are you ever jealous? In this memoir, Deepa offers her answers openly and tenderly, as she explores the truth to questions of her own. Can I ask for what I want, and still honour the life I have chosen? Do I deserve it? Is it worth it?
Unexpectedly relatable and joyfully vibrant, this is one woman’s story of discovering her own desires and how to liberate them, of shifting identities from mother to lover and back again, and of finding the courage to ask for the marriage she wanted, beyond the marriage she had. One question at a time.
Gunk, by Saba Sams (8 May, Bloomsbury)
Brighton-born, London-based author Saba Sams’ short story collection, Send Nudes, was an instant hit, and her debut novel is described as raw, exhilarating, tender and wise. A story of love and desire, safety and destruction, chaos and control, Gunk explores family in all its forms.
Jules is divorced from her ex-husband but she still works alongside him at Gunk, the grotty student nightclub. But then he hires nineteen-year-old Nim to work the bar, and her arrival jolts Jules awake for the first time in years. When Nim discovers she’s pregnant, Jules agrees to help. As the months pass, and the relationship between the two women grows increasingly intimate and perplexing, it emerges that Nim has her own unexpected gifts to give.
Now, alone in her small flat, Jules is holding a baby, just twenty-four hours old, who still smells of Nim. But no one knows where Nim is, or if she’s coming back. What could the future – for Jules, Nim, and this unnamed baby – possibly look like?
It Should Have Been You, by Andrea Mara (8 May, Bantam)
Bestselling author Andrea Mara returns with yet another unputdownable thriller that poses the question: All the neighbours have secrets. But how far will they go to keep them?
Look what you started. You text your sister. Your message is full of gossip about your neighbour. But you accidentally send it to the entire local community WhatsApp group instead. Now everyone knows. As rumour spreads like wildfire through the picture-perfect neighbourhood, you convince yourself that people will move on, that this will quickly be forgotten. But then you receive the first death threat.
And someone wants you dead. The next day, a woman was murdered. And what’s even more chilling is that she had the same address as you – 26 Oakpark – but in a different part of town. Did the killer get the wrong house? It won’t be long before you find out…
The Episode, by Mary Ann Kenny (15 May, Sandycove)
One fine April day, Mary Ann Kenny’s husband died suddenly while jogging near their family home. In the months that followed, Mary Ann – who had no history of mental illness – began suffering from depression, and then from a terrifying succession of physical and psychological symptoms, including the delusion that her young children had been harmed by her medications.
In this gripping memoir, Mary Ann details her descent into psychosis, her hospitalisation, and her inspiring journey back to health and happiness. Drawing on her detailed medical files and on her own recollections, she has created a day-by-day account of what it is like to lose touch with reality while dealing with grief and living in the dreadful knowledge that everything you care about in life is under threat.
Written with the pace of a thriller and the insight of a great psychological novel, The Episode: A True Story of Loss, Madness and Healing is a brilliant act of personal reclamation and an essential read for anyone who is interested in the workings of the mind.
The Emperor of Gladness, by Ocean Vuong (15 May, Jonathan Cape)
One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker.
Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.
Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Vuong’s writing – formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness – are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.
Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night, by Gethan Dick (15 May, Tramp Press)
A novel about hope, wolves, companionship and resilience, hunger and gold, Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night is about an underachieving millennial, a retired midwife and a charismatic Dubliner who set out from London after the end of the world to cycle to a sanctuary in the southern Alps.
It’s about packing light and choosing the right companions and trousers: what’s worth knowing, what’s worth living, and holding on to your sense of humour in moments big and small. It’s about the fact that the world ends all the time. It’s about what to do next.
The Secret Life of Leinster House, by Gavan Reilly (22 May, Gill Books)
What is it like to run for election? How do public representatives deal with the cut-throat competition from their rivals – and their own running mates? What’s the Dáil bar really like? And why, given the almost constant abuse that now comes with the job and the demands it places on those who make it their lives, would anyone want to do it?
Who better than Virgin Media’s political correspondent Gavan Reilly to take us inside the house of political power in Ireland to answer these questions and more? His clever illustration of Ireland’s electoral system (using Smarties on a viral video that has been viewed over 1.7 million times!) demystified the complexities of Irish political power for many.
Meet the whips, lobbyists and special advisers pulling the strings. Discover exactly how leaked minutes from parliamentary party meetings end up on the Six One News. With unprecedented access to political insiders, The Secret Life of Leinster House lifts the lid on what really goes on, revealing what politicians want you to know about them – and what they don’t!
Ripeness, by Sarah Moss (22 May, Picador)
Moving from 60s Italy to contemporary Ireland, Ripeness is a breathtaking story of love and the search for belonging from Sarah Moss, bestselling author of Summerwater.
On the brink of adulthood and just out of school, Edith finds herself travelling to rural Italy. She has been sent by her mother with strict instructions: to see her sister, ballet dancer Lydia, through the final weeks of her pregnancy, help at the birth and then make a phone call which will change all of their lives.
Decades later, happily divorced and newly energized, Edith is living in contentment and comfort in Ireland. When her best friend Méabh receives a call from an American man claiming to be her brother, Méabh must decide if she will meet him, and Edith finds herself plunged back into her own past and the story of the baby she once knew and loved.
Muckle Flugga, by Michael Pedersen (22 May, Faber)
Scottish author Michael Pedersen is a prize-winning poet and author, and his new title is set on a remote island as life is turned upside down by a stranger’s arrival, testing bonds of family and tradition and leaving a young dreamer’s future hanging in the balance.
It’s no ordinary existence on the rugged isle of Muckle Flugga. The elements run riot and the very rocks that shape the place begin to shift under their influence. The only human inhabitants are the lighthouse keeper, known as The Father, and his otherworldly son, Ouse. Them, and the occasional lodger to keep the wolf from the door.
When one of those lodgers – Firth, a chaotic writer – arrives from Edinburgh, the limits of the world the keeper and his son cling to begin to crumble. A tug of war ensues between Firth and the lighthouse keeper for Ouse’s affections – and his future. As old and new ways collide, and life-changing decisions loom, what will the tides leave standing in their wake?
Never Flinch, by Stephen King (27 May, Hodder & Stoughton)
From master storyteller Stephen King comes an extraordinary new novel with intertwining storylines—one about a killer on a diabolical revenge mission, and another about a vigilante targeting a feminist celebrity speaker—featuring the beloved Holly Gibney and a dynamic new cast of characters.
When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to “kill thirteen innocents and one guilty” in “an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man,” Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are fourteen citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? As the investigation unfolds, Izzy realises that the letter writer is deadly serious, and she turns to her friend Holly Gibney for help.
Meanwhile, controversial and outspoken women’s rights activist Kate McKay is embarking on a multi-state lecture tour, drawing packed venues of both fans and detractors. Someone who vehemently opposes Kate’s message of female empowerment is targeting her and disrupting her events. At first, no one is hurt, but the stalker is growing bolder, and Holly is hired to be Kate’s bodyguard—a challenging task with a headstrong employer and a determined adversary driven by wrath and his belief in his own righteousness.
Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way, by Elaine Feeney (29 May, Harvill Secker)
West of Ireland author Elaine Feeney’s newest novel has been described by Sinéad Gleeson as “a superb, multi-generational story told in stunning, poetic prose” — which is high praise indeed. Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way is a story of love and resilience, rich with history and drama, and the legacies of violence and redemption.
Claire O’Connor’s life has been on hold since she broke up with Tom Morton and moved from cosmopolitan London back home to the rugged West of Ireland to care for her dying father. But snatches of her old life are sure to follow her, when Tom unexpectedly moves nearby for work. As Claire is thrown back into a love she thought she’d left behind, she questions if Tom has come for her or for himself.
Living in her childhood home brings its own challenges. While Claire tries to maintain a normal life – obsessing over the internet, going to work and minding her own business – Tom’s return stirs up haunting memories trapped within the walls of the old family house.
A Family Matter, by Claire Lynch (29 May, Chatto & Windus)
It’s 2022, and Heron, an old man of quiet habits, has just had the sort of visit to the doctor that turns a life upside down. Sharing the diagnosis with Maggie, his only daughter, seems impossible. Heron just can’t find the words to tell her about it, or any of the other things he’s been protecting her from for so long.
It’s 1982, and Dawn is a young wife and mother penned in by the expectations of her time and place. Then Hazel comes into her life like a torch in the dark. It’s the kind of connection that’s impossible to resist, and suddenly Dawn’s world is more joyful, and more complicated, than she ever expected. But Dawn has responsibilities, she has commitments: Dawn has Maggie.
A Family Matter is an immersive and tender debut, at once heart-breaking and hopeful, that asks how we might heal from the wounds of the past, and what we might learn from them.
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