This first batch of June’s paperbacks has a distinctly Irish flavour beginning with one of my books of last year. Christine Dwyer 
Hickey writes beautifully crafted thoughtful novels, often from the perspective of women. Our London Lives is set against the backdrop of a vividly evoked London following Milly, eighteen and pregnant when she arrives from Ireland in 1979. She finds herself a job in a Faringdon pub, and a family of sorts, catching the eye of Pip, a promising young boxer. Nearly forty years later, Milly is still behind the bar when the pub closes its doors and Pip is struggling to stay sober, carrying around a set of letters of apology to those he’s hurt including Milly. Theirs is a story of bad timing, missed opportunities, stubbornness and bad behaviour played out against a background of a lovingly described London. I’ve enjoyed all of Hickey’s novels I’ve read, but this gorgeous, immersive love story is my favourite.
Donal Ryan’s Heart, Be at Peace returns to the setting of his debut, A Spinning Heart, and follows the same structure, telling the story through twenty-one interrelated voices. The town is dealing with a new scourge in the form of Augie Penrose’s lucrative drug business. Bobby becomes determined to do something about this menace to the town, far from the only one concerned at the damage being done. There’s a reasonable helping of dark humour to be enjoyed, not least in the novel’s resolution welcomed by Bobby’s wife, unaware of its implications for the future, and Ryan’s writing is characteristically striking but I preferred the more straightforward approach of The Queen of Dirt Island.
I’ve read and enjoyed all three of oncologist Austin Duffy’s previous novels, each of which explores a medical theme in one way or another. Cross sounds very different. Opening in 1994, the year of the ceasefire, it’s set in the eponymous Northern Irish border town where many have blood on their hands, and others are mourning their losses. ‘From its dramatic first chapter, Cross is an extraordinary evocation of the loyalties and divisions within a town governed by its own variety of law, where violence is rewarded and complicity is second nature. It is a complex tale of betrayal and brutality at the height of the Troubles, a moving, powerful and empathetic lament for a community that has lost its way in its battle for the nation’ says the blurb. I’m expecting great things of this one.
As many readers will already know, Colm Tóibín’s Long Island is the sequel to his much-loved Brooklyn, taking up the story of Eilis Lacey in the 1970s, twenty years after we left her. Eilis is living with her husband and children in their Long Island home when some shocking news takes her back to Ireland and a way of life she’d long put behind her. ‘A novel of enormous wit and profound emotional resonance from one of the world’s finest writers’ says the blurb although I’ve registered quite a lot of disappointment with this one.
Jessica Anthony’s The Most opens on a November Sunday in 1957 when Kathleen Beckett, one time tennis champion, now housewife to Virgil, an insurance salesmen and woman chaser, refuses to get out of the swimming pool of the complex where they live. The blurb describes this one as ‘A tightly wound, consuming tale about a 1950s American housewife, for fans of Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Franzen and Taffy Brodesser-Akner’. I like the sound of that.
Gu Byeong-Mo’s Your Neighbour’s Table is set in a government funded apartment building, a pilot project aimed at 
addressing South Korea’s ever-dwindling birth rate. When Yojin, Euno and six-year-old Siyul move in there are just three other families in residence, most of whom have turned out to meet their new neighbours sitting round the enormous table in the apartment’s yard. Over the next few months, group dynamics are increasingly strained, communal childcare becomes a competition, and marriages are stretched to breaking point. In this highly gendered, hierarchical society even little Siyul is expected to take the lead in looking after the younger children which made me want to put my head in my hands.
I like the premise of Lauren Elkin’s Scaffolding which sees two couples living in the same Parisian apartment fifty years apart. In 2019, David works in London while Anna is trying to come to terms with a miscarriage, making friends with a younger woman who’s part of a radical feminist group. In 1972, Florence is hoping to get pregnant, but Henry is ambivalent. ‘Both sets of couples face the challenges of marriage, fidelity, and pregnancy, against a backdrop of political disappointment and intellectual controversy. The characters and their ghosts bump into and weave around each other, not knowing that they once all inhabited the same space’ according to the blurb.
That’s it for June’s first batch of paperbacks. A click on a title will take you either to my review or to a more detailed synopsis should you want to know more, and if you’d like to catch up with new fiction it’s here and here. Part two soon…
The Byeong-Mo sounds really intriguing and I’ve wanted to read the Elkin for a while. I love novels with medical themes, so might check out Duffy’s earlier work!
Highly recommend Duffy’s books although The Night Interns is a bit unsettling.
Scaffolding was brilliant. I’m looking forward to reading The Most, which is on order at the library. Long Island is one I’d say you can skip.
I’ll find that hard but I’m pleased to hear you’re giving Scaffolding a resounding thumbs up!
I like the sound of Scaffolding too.
Pleased to hear it’s got Rebecca’s seal of approval.
These are all tempting, but the first two are must-reads for me!
So pleased to hear that! Our London Lives is superb.
Cross sounds interesting, and I’m always a sucker for monochrome covers…
He’s a good writer. Funnily enough, the hardback edition’s jacket was quite different.
Aagh, I wrote a comment on my triain journey home, which got lost in the ether. I so enjoyed Our London Lives – I really got involved, I remember. Unlike Long Island which was such a disappointment. A well written disappointment, but the plot and characters didn’t entirely convince. Despite the hard-to-deal with social set up, I’m keen to read the Gu Byeong-Mo. In fact the only one that’s not reeling me in is The Most. Nothing about the blurb appeals!
I’m so pleased you loved Our London Lives. She’s one of those writers, like Helen Dunmore, who quietly gets on with producing brilliant work. I’m well prepared for Long Island not to be what I had originally hoped for. Sequels so rarely work.
And he made it clear in his final chapter that Volume Three could happen too …
That really would be a step too far.
Thanks for reminding me about Our London Lives. I put it on my wishlist when it was first published but never got round to buying it. But the other day I saw it was available again on NetGalley so it’s now on my Kindle.
Great news! I hope you love it as much as I did, Cathy.
Both Your Neighbour’s Table and Scaffolding sound interesting, as does The Most. I really enjoyed The Queens of Dirt Island–wish this one had worked as well.
I think lots of people liked the Ryan but I found connectioning so many narrative voices distracting.
Dwyer-Hickey, Ryan and Toibin are shortlisted for the Kerry Book Award at Listowel Writers Week next week. I haven’t read any of the three but I think I will be rooting for Dwyer-Hickey at the event. The Most and Scaffolding sound interesting. Not sure I am interested in another Asian social control type of story. It seems to be a common theme in Asian books. No doubt reflecting lived reality in some places.
Sadly, so. South Korea has the lowest fertility rate in the world and if the male characters in Your Neighbour’s Table are anything to go by, I’m not surprised. Are you going to many Listowel events?
I am a volunteer at the festival as it’s in my home town. I will be attending lots of events. Check the programme on the website writersweek.ie
That’s brilliant, Lucy. I’m sure you’ll have a great time.
Both Our London Lives and Scaffolding sound wonderful to me. Bar stories. Apartment stories. Yes, please.
London Lives is wonderful and I have high hopes for Scaffolding.
I’ve put off reading Long Island, but will brace myself & get to it at some point! Like many of your other readers, I’m finding Scaffolding an attractive prospect. Since I’ve been a fan of Donal Ryan from the beginning, I’ll probably check out his latest as well. Thanks as always for the round-up!
Always welcome! I’m a fan so will read Long Island but my expectations have been strictly managed. Hopes ars a lot higher for Scaffolding.