New titles from Elizabeth Day, Elizabeth Gilbert and Heather Morris are among the best new titles being published throughout September.
Unseen: A Memoir of Trauma, Ireland’s Psychiatric System and a Lifetime spent Healing, by Breda O’Toole
4 September, Gill Books
From a childhood shaped by neglect and violence to three brutal years spent in a cold, indifferent convent, Breda O’Toole’s early life was marked by abandonment. When she sought help, she entered a mental health system that continued the pattern — misdiagnosing her, medicating her into silence, binding her in a straitjacket for 11 days and subjecting her to 29 rounds of electroconvulsive therapy.
For decades, Breda was treated not as a person, but as a problem to be managed — her pain unseen, her voice unheard. Unseen is also a story of fierce resilience. Refusing to be defined by the failures of the system, Breda fought to reclaim her health, her voice and her life. Through courage, determination and a relentless search for dignity, she uncovered a sense of self that had long been buried.
Mother Mary Comes To Me, by Arundhati Roy
4 September, Hamish Hamilton
Arundhati Roy’s first work of memoir is a soaring account, both intimate and inspiring, of how the author became the person and the writer she is, shaped by circumstance, but above all by her relationship to her extraordinary, singular mother Mary, who she describes as ‘my shelter and my storm’.
Distraught and even a “little ashamed” at the intensity of her response to the death of the mother she ran from at age eighteen, Arundhati began to write Mother Mary Comes to Me. The result is this astonishing, disconcerting, surprisingly funny chronicle—unique and simultaneously universal, of the author’s life, from childhood to the present, from Kerala to Delhi.
The Lie of the Land: A Game Plan for Ireland in the Climate Crisis, by John Gibbons
4 September, Sandycove
The Lie of the Land is a bracing critique of the bad decisions that have put Ireland into such a vulnerable position, and a devastating dissection of the wishful thinking and outright dishonesty that have propped up the status quo in Irish agribusiness.
It also offers an inspiring vision of how—through a revolution in farming, development of renewable energy (including our vast offshore wind resource), and a dramatic acceleration of moves to decarbonise transport and housing—we can prepare for the new realities of the climate crisis.
Still: A Memoir, by Julia Kelly
5 September, New Island Books
Julia Kelly’s mother, Delphine, spent much of her life in the shadows as a politician’s wife, tending selflessly to the needs of her husband, John, and five wild children. When John collapses from a heart attack, it is a sad liberation for his wife. Unshackled from her domestic duties, Delphine undergoes a transformation. She sets out on adventures to far-flung places. Her final journey is to the Galapagos Islands, where, hit by an unexpected wave, she loses her balance and is forced underwater. When her body surfaces, she is no longer breathing. The book left on her bedside locker in the hotel is 1,000 Places to See Before You Die.
Mired in grief, the five siblings begin the long repatriation of their mother’s body. But it is the post-mortem report that provides the key to Julia’s healing and recovery: gradually, within the clinical descriptions of limbs and eyes, heart and toes, Julia finds solace. Taking inspiration from each body part, she breathes life into Delphine – finally still and fully present for the first time in her seventy-two years – in gorgeous, luminous prose.
Secret of Secrets, by Dan Brown
9 September, Bantam Press
The world’s most celebrated thriller writer’s first novel for over eight years, Secret of Secrets sees the stunning return of Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, this time pitting his wits against a conspiracy that will test even his considerable brainpower and take him to the edge of losing all that he holds dear.
Robert Langdon travels to Prague to attend a groundbreaking lecture by Katherine Solomon, a prominent scientist with whom he has recently begun a relationship. Katherine is on the verge of publishing an explosive book that contains startling discoveries about the nature of human consciousness and threatens to disrupt centuries of established belief. But a brutal murder catapults the trip into chaos, and Katherine suddenly disappears along with her manuscript.
All the Way to the River, by Elizabeth Gilbert
9 September, Bloomsbury
In her first non-fiction book in a decade, the number one bestselling writer who taught millions of readers to live authentically (Eat, Pray, Love) and creatively (Big Magic) shows how to break free.
In 2000, Elizabeth Gilbert met Rayya. They became friends, then best friends, then inseparable. When tragedy entered their lives, the truth was finally laid bare: the two were in love. They were also a pair of addicts, on a collision course toward catastrophe. This landmark memoir will resonate with anyone who has ever been captive to love—or to any other passion, substance or craving—and who yearns, at long last, for liberation.
The Wish, by Heather Morris
11 September, Zaffre
From the author of the global number one bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz comes a powerful and heartfelt contemporary novel about a dying teenager’s final wish, a lonely young man’s journey towards connection, and the unexpected friendship they find together.
When teenage cancer patient Jesse is offered the chance to have her greatest wish fulfilled, she immediately knows what she wants: a digital 3D recreation of her life, something to be there for her friends and family to watch and relive. This is how she meets games designer Alex, and their unexpected friendship changes both their lives forever.
Speaking My Mind, by Leo Varadkar
11 September, Sandycove
Described as a revealing, intimate and important memoir from a singular public figure, Leo Varadkar shares his pride in helping to bring about transformational changes, such as marriage equality, and details experiences ranging from speaking frankly to Pope Francis on the legacy of church abuses to connecting with Barack Obama and navigating challenges such as the pandemic and the fallout from Brexit.
Birthing, by Davina McCall
11 September, HQ
The ultimate guide to conception, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, Birthing blends Davina McCall’s honesty and humour with expert insights to empower and support women through every stage of the journey.
Packed with unfiltered advice, bold truths, and empowering stories, this book doesn’t shy away from the messy or raw realities. Instead, it celebrates them, because women’s health deserves nothing less than honesty and care.
The Gaeilge Guide: Spark Your Connection to the Irish Language and Legacy, by Mollie Guidera
11 September, Hachette Books Ireland
Online Irish teacher Mollie Guidera brings her joyful, down-to-earth approach to the page in a book guaranteed to spark your connection to the Irish language and legacy. Whether you’re dipping in out of curiosity or diving deep, this is your warm, wise, and welcome companion to rediscovering the language that captures the soul and memory of the Irish people.
Expect practical guidance and useful phrases, along with heartfelt stories that reveal the humanity within the words, and much more. Mollie shows us how to reconnect with our ancient and endangered language – and with ourselves – by demystifying the shame and frustration many still feel around Irish, and replacing it with a fun, accessible path back to the richness of our native tongue.
What We Can Know, by Ian McEwan
18 September, Jonathan Cape
In 2014, a great poem is read aloud and never heard again. For generations, people have speculated about its message, but no copy has yet been found. By 2119, the lowlands of the UK have been submerged by rising seas. Those who survive are haunted by the richness of the world that has been lost. Tom Metcalfe, an academic at the University of the South Downs, part of Britain’s remaining island archipelagos, pores over the archives of that distant era, captivated by the freedoms and possibilities of human life at its zenith.
When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the lost poem, a story is revealed of entangled loves and a crime that destroys his assumptions about people he thought he knew intimately well. What We Can Know reclaims the present from our sense of looming catastrophe, and imagines a future world where all is not quite lost.
She Died Young: A Life in Fragments, by Brenda Fricker
18 September, Bloomsbury Publishing
The literary work of an astonishing mind in which intellect, madness, art and raw honesty unite, She Died Young is as far from a ‘celebrity memoir’ as you can get.
The first Irish actress to win an Oscar, Brenda’s contributions to theatre, film and television represent an artistic legacy that few can match. With humour, honesty and a poetic sensibility, Brenda Fricker traces a life-journey in which her resilience and inner strength shine brightly. With luminous memories of happy summers in Kerry, where she and her sister Gránia got up to hilarious mischief and learned to rebel against Irish orthodoxy, she also explores devastating personal challenges. She talks frankly of her complicated adult relationships. She describes the difficulty of surviving sexual violence and living with mental illness.
Injury Time, by Kevin Smith
18 September, Lilliput Press
Described as a poignant, acerbic look at a man out of sync with the world around him, Kevin Smith’s prose is hilarious and incisive, blending satire with a genuine exploration of ageing, masculinity, and the slow erosion of certainty. This is a story about dodging bullets, literal and metaphorical, and the painful comedy of life’s second half.
Businessman Fenton Conville is coasting through life with his mates and his money in a sleepy Northern Irish village. Until, that is, he wakes on his 50th birthday to an unexpected solicitor’s letter and a shocking allegation that could blow his world apart. In this sharp-eyed comedy of memories, middle age and long-buried mistakes, a privileged entrepreneur feels the chill winds of post-Brexit change in a society struggling to account for its past.
The Bailout Babies, by Adam Maguire
18 September, Gill Books
This book delves into the lives of a generation caught between Ireland’s crash and comeback. Born in the boom, they grew up in an era of good jobs, easy debt and leisurely brunches. But before they were old enough to benefit, the crash hit, the bailout came, and with it a decade of austerity. Now in their late 20s and 30s, The Bailout Babies are stuck in economic limbo: back in childhood bedrooms or paying extortionate rent, working gigs instead of careers, swiping for love and managing anxiety.
This is not a story of failure, it’s a story of reinvention, of how a generation is finding ways to earn, spend and live. This generation is rewriting what adulthood looks like in post-boom Ireland.
Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, by Priscilla Presley
23 September, Headline
This is the deeply personal story of what Priscilla lost—and found—when she walked away from the man she loved. Despite their legal separation, their love evolved into a touching and tender connection that endured until Elvis’s untimely death four years later.
Priscilla’s devotion to motherhood deepened with the birth of her second child, and over time, she began to find her footing as a businesswoman, actress, designer, and legislative advocate. She transformed Graceland into a global destination and played a key role in shaping Elvis Presley Enterprises. Yet years later, the unexpected and devastating loss of three immediate family members brought her to her knees.
We Love You, Bunny, by Mona Awad
23 September, Scribner UK
The highly-anticipated follow-up to the viral sensation Bunny, We Love You, Bunny opens as Sam has just published her first novel to critical acclaim. But at a New England stop on her book tour, her one-time frenemies, furious at the way they’ve been portrayed, kidnap her. Now a captive audience, it’s her (and our) turn to hear the Bunnies’ side of the story.
One by one, they take turns holding the axe, and recount the birth throes of their unholy alliance, their discovery of their unusual creative powers — and the phantasmagoric adventure of conjuring their first creation. With a bound and gagged Sam, we embark on a wickedly intoxicating journey into the heart of dark academia: a fairy tale slasher that explores the wonder and horror of creation itself.
One of Us, by Elizabeth Day
25 September, Fourth Estate
In this compulsive story of betrayal, old bonds and buried scandals, one British establishment family comes face to face with the consequences of privilege and the true cost of power.
Martin and Ben were friends for decades before the terrible events at Ben’s 40th birthday party tore them apart. So when Martin receives a surprise invitation back into the inner sanctum of the dazzling Fitzmaurice family after seven years of silence, he can’t resist the chance to get his revenge.
Venetian Vespers, by John Banville
25 September, Faber & Faber
Bestselling Booker Prize-winning (and Wexford-born) author John Banville returns with an eerie, Venice-set novel. Set in the winter of 1899, strange things are afoot in Venetian Vespers. As the new century approaches, English hack writer Evelyn Dolman marries Laura Rensselaer, the daughter of a wealthy American plutocrat. But in the midst of a rift between Laura and her father, Evelyn’s plans for a substantial inheritance look to be dashed.
Arriving in Venice for their belated honeymoon at Palazzo Dioscuri–the ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarigo–the couple are met by a series of seemingly otherworldly occurrences, which exacerbate Evelyn’s already frayed nerves. Is it just the sea mist blanketing the floating city, or is he really losing his mind?
Astrocartography, by Clarisse Monahan
25 September, Dorling Kindersley Limited
If astrology helps you find your place in the greater cosmic order, astrocartography shows you exactly where you can best thrive. Plot your birth chart against a world map and follow the planetary lines to pinpoint the locations and cultures that hold most significance to you, then unlock all that they have to offer.
Through this action-inspiring book, you will learn the science of fulfilling moves and how to connect with or avoid auspicious and challenging places for love, work, and travel. So long as you are within 250 miles of a line, you don’t even have to buy a plane ticket: gain all the benefits by connecting remotely.
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