***SELECTED AS A 2026 BOOK TO WATCH IN THE TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, IRISH TIMES, SUNDAY INDEPENDENT, RTE*** 'One of the debuts of the year' Irish Times 'A stylish, adroit and gritty debut' Anne Enright 'A book you inhale, devour, grapple with, and reel from more than read' Marlon James 'Exhilarating and often frightening . . . a hugely satisfying read' Roddy Doyle 'As beautiful and tough as an uncut jewel' Colin Walsh 'A moving, fast-paced novel . . . written in prose at once glittering and tender' Sarah Moss 'Frenetic and exhilarating . . . has the energy and drama of a shoot-out' Rob Doyle Things are different since Tony Ward landed back in town. The West Dublin gangland has changed. His old mentor is dead, and his best pal Kenny Boyle is on the straight and narrow.

The instant Sunday Times besteller 'The work of a writer who has once again demonstrated complete command of his craft' - The Irish Times 'Short stories to astonish and delight' Financial Times 'Tales of quiet power' The Guardian In The News from Dublin, a beautiful collection of short stories from the bestselling author of Brooklyn and Long Island, Colm Toibin delves into the days and nights of those living far from home: lives of great longing, at a great distance from past lives and past selves. A woman in Galway hears of the death of her son in the First World War. An Irishman seeks anonymity in Barcelona, haunted by crimes he has committed. A man goes to Dublin from Enniscorthy to implore the Minister for Health for a special favour.

'The Visit is an engrossing and tender portrait of a small town under pressure ... Stark and elemental - at the heart of the novel is a sort of quiet yearning and a longing for love and for completion that makes Neil Tully's novel so brilliant and intriguing' - Colm Tóibín"The lad is a bit like a stray dog. I keep an eye on him and throw him a few scraps. There are plenty of people in this town who'd just as soon drop him off in the wilderness and hope there's no scent to follow home. The problem is that Patrick could find his way out of any wilderness and they wouldn't like whatever starved thing came back."Sergeant Jim Field feels a guilty paternalism for Patrick Hatten, a young man struggling to find a job, a life and a purpose in a small-town Wexford community. Both are used to being on the fringes but while Jim is a romantic with bad health and regret, Patrick is full of anger and action, and his actions could have devastating effects.

Set across liminal landscapes, this collection of fourteen stories from award-winning author Niamh Mac Cabe feature characters navigating emotional or existential thresholds—grieving, seeking meaning, or reconciling with the past. Whether it is a reclusive sculptor haunted by guilt, a lost child drawing maps in the sand, or a greyhound silently shadowing a man to a mountain lake, Mac Cabe’s lyrical prose and inventive narrative structures evoke an eerie, tender intimacy. Rich and atmospheric, exploring themes of memory, solitude, loss, and the mysterious rhythms of nature and human connection, this collection blurs the line between the internal and external world, and invites us into spaces of beauty, melancholy and subtle transformation. Four Night Seas marks the arrival of a vital new voice in Irish writing.

Unable to free themselves from a personal trauma six years past, one that has come back to haunt them due to an outrageous miscarriage of justice, Brendan and Irene Gogarty find themselves amongst a planeload of Holy Joes bound for Medjugorje. A pair of agnostics, most unlikely pilgrims, they’re taking a punt on divine deliverance. Medjugorje in 1995 is a spiritual shrine in the middle of a warzone, a ready-made getaway with Vegas-type odds on salvation, but the sacred hill does not deliver. Overcome with unrealistic hopes for some heavenly sign, Irene has a meltdown on Cross Mountain. Things will never be the same. The couple head for the coast and witness first-hand a country ravaged by conflict before they reach the azure calm of the Adriatic. Over lazy days in a fishing village the Gogartys begin to unwind. On a whim Brendan decides to buy an old cottage – dubbed the villa – as a gift for Irene. It is perfect except that it is occupied by the auctioneer’s pregnant cousin, Anja, and her severely war-damaged husband, Damir.

‘Funny and tender ... Patrick Ryan has long been one of my favourite writers’ ANN PATCHETT ‘I love this novel with my entire heart … Wise and heartbreaking’ ANN NAPOLITANOIn the small Ohio town of Bonhomie, Cal Jenkins and Margaret Salt come together in a stolen moment of passion, sparked in the exuberant aftermath of the Allied victory in Europe. Cal’s wife, Becky, has a spiritual gift: she is a seer who can conjure the dead, helping families connect with those whom they’ve lost. Margaret’s husband, Felix, is serving on a Navy cargo ship; she will soon learn that he may have perished in a predawn attack in the Philippine Sea. But in a small town, nothing stays buried forever, and the consequences of that encounter will ripple through the next generation of both families, compelling them to re-examine who they thought they were – and what the future might hold. Full of compassion, humour and charm, Buckeye is a dazzling portrait of an unforgettable community: of hopes and fears, loves and losses, and above all an indomitable longing for connection.

'Truly a book for our time' PAUL LYNCHFROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE SPECKLED PEOPLEFleeing his failed marriage in Berlin, Lukas Dorn revisits the West of Ireland, the place of his honeymoon two decades earlier. While his former wife is being cancelled at work and his daughter is arrested at a street protest, he tries to make sense of his broken life with a journal as his sole companion. His inherited memory of the Nazi Holocaust comes face to face with the present when he meets a refugee from a recent warzone. As Lukas communes with the elements in this wild coastal place, he is forced into a confrontation with the past that will carry him to the edge of existence. Conversation with the Sea speaks with heart-rending tenderness to the present moment, as it explores truth, illusion and the deadly silencing of war in a captivating tale of love in a time of displacement. 'Told with Hamilton's signature purity of tone, an epic story about how love and history intersect.' ANNE ENRIGHT'I don't think I've ever read a book as wise, or as moving. I will treasure it forever.' DONAL RYAN'Hypnotic, passionate, urgent ... Hamilton cuts a clean line to the truth of our mindless moment.' PAUL LYNCH