If 2022 is the year you want to get on top of your reading lists, we've got you covered! We've put together the biggest releases of the year that we're really looking forward to getting on hands on this year.
From autobiographies to the hottest fiction from beloved Irish authors like Louise O'Neill and Marian Keyes, we have our top picks from the cream of the crop right here for you to browse through!
‘Idol’ by Louise O’Neill (May 2022)
For Samantha Miller's young fans - her 'girls' - she's everything they want to be. She's an oracle, telling them how to live their lives, how to be happy, how to find and honour their 'truth'.
And her career is booming: she's just hit three million followers, her new book Chaste has gone straight to the top of the bestseller lists and she's appearing at sell-out events. She's written an essay about her sexual awakening as a teenager, with her female best friend, Lisa and the essay goes viral.
But then - years since they last spoke - Lisa gets in touch to say that she doesn't remember it that way at all. Her memory of that night is far darker. It's Sam's word against Lisa's - so who gets to tell the story? Whose 'truth' is really a lie?
‘The Raptures’ by Jan Carson (January 2022)
It is late June in Ballylack. Hannah Adger anticipates eight long weeks' reprieve from school, but when her classmate Ross succumbs to a violent and mysterious illness, it marks the beginning of a summer like no other.
As others fall ill, questions about what - or who - is responsible pitch the village into conflict and fearful disarray. Hannah, ever the outsider, is haunted by guilt as she remains healthy while her friends are struck down. Isolated and afraid, she prays for help. What happens next will force her to question everything she believes.
The Raptures explores how tragedy can unite a small community - and tear it apart. At its heart is the extraordinary resilience of one young girl. As the world crumbles around her, she must find the courage to be different.
‘Again, Rachel’ by Marian Keyes (February)
In her twenties, Rachel Walsh was a mess.
Since her spell in rehab, though, she's come a long way on the road to recovery - and now, she's ready to go back to where it all began. But this time, the student has become the teacher. She used to hate the staff in charge of treating her addiction. Now, she's one of them.
Rachel's finally got herself on track - but life never stops being messy. And when an old flame resurfaces, will she go back to who she once was? Or at fifty, can she find herself all over again? The follow up to Keyes’ phenomenally successful and beloved ‘Rachel’s Holiday’, we’re buzzing to get our hand son this read and catch up with Rachel all these years later!
‘Black Cake’ by Charmaine Wilkerson (February 2022)
In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett's death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a traditional Caribbean black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child, challenging everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage, and themselves.
Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor's true history, and fulfil her final request to "share the black cake when the time is right"? Will their mother's revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?
‘Breaking Point’ by Edel Coffey (January 2022)
Susannah has two beautiful daughters, a high-flying medical career, a successful husband, and an enviable life. Her hair is glossy, her clothes are expensive; she truly has it all.
But when - on the hottest day of the year - her strict morning routine is disrupted, Susannah finds herself running on autopilot. It is hours before she realises she has made a devastating mistake. Her baby, Louise, is still in the backseat of the car and it is too late to save her.
As the press closes in around her, Susannah is put on trial for negligence. It is plain to see that this is not a trial, it's a witch hunt. But what will the court say?
‘Notes on an Execution’ by Danya Kukafka (February 2022)
Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what he’s done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. But Ansel doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood. He hoped it wouldn’t end like this, not for him.
Through a kaleidoscope of women—a mother, a sister, a homicide detective—we learn the story of Ansel’s life. We meet his mother, Lavender, a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation; Hazel, twin sister to Ansel’s wife, inseparable since birth, forced to watch helplessly as her sister’s relationship threatens to devour them all; and finally, Saffy, the homicide detective hot on his trail, who has devoted herself to bringing bad men to justice but struggles to see her own life clearly.
Blending breathtaking suspense with astonishing empathy, Notes on an Execution presents a chilling portrait of womanhood as it asks readers to consider the false promise of looking for meaning in the psyches of violent men.
‘Yeah, But Where are You Really From’ by Marguerite Penrose (May 2022)
Marguerite was born in a Dublin mother-and-baby home in 1974, the daughter of an Irish mother and a Zambian father. In addition, severe scoliosis indicated a future of difficult medical procedures. She was fostered and later adopted by a young couple and acquired a mam, dad, sister, Ciara, and loving extended family.
Growing up, Marguerite's appearance was occasionally remarked on by strangers, but it wasn't until her teens that she understood that her skin colour was a provocation for some. The progressive city that she knew was revealed to also have an unpleasant undercurrent. So, she became an expert in shaping her life around anything that marked her out as 'different'.
She writes about coming to terms with the circumstances of her birth and, like so many in her position, looking for answers. About navigating the world as an active woman with a disability. About what it means to be both Irish and Black, particularly at a moment when the conversation is becoming mainstream in Ireland and she is thinking about it in new ways herself.
