Five gripping books to lose yourself in this summer
Sue Leonard finds plenty of immersive summer reading from five Irish authors
WRITERS had a dilemma during lockdown. What should they write about when they couldn’t imagine what post pandemic Ireland would be like? Would readers want lockdown stories in 2021? Would an escapist tale in the sun be more to their liking, or would they enjoy a more homely tale?
Fiona O’Brien, in choosing a tight knit community in a West Cork village has hit the mark quite perfectly. In The Summer we were Friends, (Hachette Books Ireland), the inhabitants are preparing for a film festival. And newcomer, Dot, has set up a first-rate B and B, incorporating long-term guests.
There’s a certain frisson between Dot, a new widow, and Rob, the locum GP who is living in one of her cottages. But when the English TV star, Molly Cusack, turns up to write her memoir before launching the festival, Dot fears that Rob’s attention is turning Molly’s way. Add in Ryan, a young American tycoon, who, completing plans for a golf course is debating marrying his influencer girlfriend, and it makes for an interesting household.
And that’s before Charlie appears. Another American, he turns up at The Seashell Café with no idea of how he got there, or even who he is. When Dot takes him in, it unites the rest of the household, and indeed the entire village, making for a quite wonderful sense of community. And that, surely, is what we all crave after the year of isolation we’ve endured.
I adored this intelligently written novel, and spent a glorious sunny Sunday immersed in O’Brien’s world. There’s a perfect blend of romance, (and not only for the young,) of intrigue and fun, with a soupcon of teenage angst and touch of mystery blended in. This is, simply, a perfect holiday read.
In The Ladies Midnight Swimming Club, (Head of Zeus, Aria), Faith Hogan has also chosen a theme of friendship and close community. Set in a seaside village in County Mayo, this one concerns Elizabeth, the local doctor’s widow, who finds herself facing near bankruptcy.
She discusses her problems over midnight swims with her best friend, Jo, but Jo has problems of her own. She’s not feeling her best and is facing an uncertain future. But when Jo’s daughter, Lucy, a burnt-out Dublin A and E doctor arrives for a much-needed break, the two women hatch a plan. What if Lucy took over the village’s antiquated practice? This would suit the two friends, but there’s Lucy’s teenage son to consider. Is it fair to ask him to give up city life and live in a backwater?
This one has a resident writer too, in Dan, a script writer who has arrived from London in order to write a novel. He has other reasons for visiting Mayo. He believes he was born in the local orphanage – and is set on finding his parentage. Finding initial resistance, will he succeed?
Most of the action in Carmel Harrington’s new novel, The Moon over Kilmore Quay, (Harper Collins), takes place in Brooklyn – where her main protagonist, Bea, has lived all her life. And when, in early 2020, Bea visits Kilmore Quay with her two best friends, she reacts like any tourist – relishing such delights as bacon and cabbage and scones and jam.
Bea is searching for her roots. She doesn’t remember her Mum. Maeve died when Bea was young, and she was brought up by her dad and her grandparents. Missing her late grandparents, she’s now keen to meet her Aunt Lucy, and discover her mum’s homeplace. But she leaves New York without Dan, the Irishman she’d believed was ‘the one’ Why have they broken up? And why keep the reason to herself?
The novel switches between Bea’s life, to Lucy’s back in the early nineties, when she and Bea’s Mum left Wexford on their great American adventure. But why did Lucy leave New York so suddenly, and what kept her away from her brother-in-law and niece for all the years in between?
This novel based on some family secrets is heavily plotted, with some mammoth twists along the way. In essence it’s a series of broken love stories that cross the Atlantic as it tracks the Emigrants’ dilemma.
Harrington’s book ends in March 2020 – just before the pandemic hit – and that’s where Catherine Ryan Howard’s novel, 56 Days, (Corvus), begins. Catherine was living alone in Dublin City Centre when Covid arrived. Bored of her own company, she thought up a story about a couple who meet just before Leo Varadkar ordered a two-week lockdown, and who decide to spend the time living together.
Oliver and Ciara have only recently arrived in Dublin; he came from London, she arrived from Cork. They’re an attractive couple, but there’s something slightly off about their relationship. Both of them seem reluctant to reveal too much about their true selves.
The book opens 56 days after their meeting in a Tesco store when a detective is called to Oliver’s apartment, and discovers a decomposing body slumped in the shower. Was it an accident or murder? This mind-blowingly brilliant story is told, in turns, by Oliver, Ciara, and the main detective on the case, Lee, and it moves backwards and forwards in time.
There are many, many twists in the tale – yet all of them feel authentic. And the backdrop of lockdown Dublin gives this story an edge; it’s a character in itself. As the couple wander around the eerily deserted streets of Dublin in that amazing Sunny Spring weather of 2020, seeing few people in masks, the reader gets, almost, a sense of nostalgia.
Ryan-Howard exploded onto the crime scene with Distress Signals in 2016, and in each of her four books since, has proved to be a queen of the craft. Starting with a high-concept idea, she builds on this with pitch perfect characterisation. Last year’s Nowhere Man was my favourite crime read of the year, and 56 Days is even better.
Sheila O’Flanagan set her twenty-ninth novel, Three Weddings and a Proposal, (Headline Review), on an unspecified date post pandemic. There are references to the events of 2020 – there’s talk of cancelled business trips, working from home, and fear for the elderly, but now life is back to normal. The characters venture abroad; they’re back in the office; and, as the title suggests, elaborate weddings are back to the fore.
Delphie, however, the narrator of this novel, attends weddings with the greatest reluctance. She loves her independence. She has a great job, a gorgeous coastal house, good friends, and a series of no-strings relationships. But when her boss suddenly dies, shortly after telling her she was to become a director, she finds herself shafted. Her male colleagues, intent on securing their own futures, make it clear that they have never valued her contribution.
To make matters worse, she’s caught between her loyalty to her former boss’s ex-wife, and the grief of his new young mistress. She’s failing to get jobs she is overqualified for, and with her confidence at an all-time low, her rekindled relationship with Luke, the only man who ever dumped her, seems like a comfortable place of safety. And her family, sensing marriage, could not be more delighted. Will she submit, or might there be another way?
This novel sees Sheila O’Flanagan at her insightful best. It flows along naturally, with a plot that feels unforced. There’s great characterisation, natural dialogue, and a sprinkling of clever one-liners. Overall, it’s a very smart feminist novel, examining the choices women have to make, and the obstacles still put in their way.
