Books to Look Out For in April 2026: Part Two

We’re in New York for the first three titles in April’s second preview, Ireland for the last three and Iceland for one in the middle.

Jay McInerney’s See You on the Other Side is the fourth and final instalment of the series which spans four decades in the lives of New York golden couple, Russell and Corrine Calloway. Now in their 60s, the Calloways are downsizing while navigating the usual pitfalls of early old age. As the pandemic hits, the city shuts down scuppering their daughter’s plans to open a restaurant in Brooklyn. ‘Told with McInerney’s signature wit and elegiac prose, See You on the Other Side is a dazzling finale to the bestselling Calloway series, capturing the disorientation of a couple forced to confront their own mortality amidst shifting cultural tides and the slow unravelling of the world they once knew’ promises the blurb. Fingers crossed for this one; I loved Brightness Falls, was disappointed by The Good Life, but enjoyed Bright Precious Days.

In Stephanie Wambugu’s Lonely Crowds, Ruth and Maria are the only scholarship girls at their New England school. Ruth finds herself drawn to Maria almost unwillingly, entranced by her vibrancy. They grow up together, attend the same college, and move to New York in the 1990s, entering the art world, both in pursuit of their dreams, their bond strained by rivalry and ambition.’ Ruth and Maria’s decades-long friendship interrogates the nature of intimacy, desire, class and time. What does it mean to be an artist and to be true to oneself? What does it mean to give up on an obsession?’ asks the blurb. Very much like the sound of that.

Nicola Maye Goldberg’s Other Women sees a young college dropout wandering around New York longing for a man she knows will never love her back. Hired as a live-in nanny by the young wife of a successful businessman to accompany the family to Berlin, she thinks she’s found purpose and safety, but when it becomes clear the Herzfelds’ many secrets are threatening to crack the family open, it seems her position is even more precarious than it was. I might have passed this one by but it’s from Verso, an indie with an interesting list.

Beginning in 1962, Icelandic historian and novelist Sigrún Pálsdóttir’s Boudoir follows Teddy over five decades. Raised on an isolated farm, she begins to dream of another world after a couple of chance encounters which open her eyes to different ways of life. ‘Taking us from grandeur of rural Iceland to the glossy, sticky world of 1970s air travel, via check fraud, thwarted ambition and lost astronauts, Boudoir is a novel about reinvention, dislocation, and the forceful gravity of the lives and selves we think we’ve left behind’ says the blurb intriguingly. Keen to read this one which comes from the ever reliable Peirene Press.

Spanning a single weekend, Ashley Hickson-Lovence’s About to Fall Apart follows Aidy, rushing home after punching a colleague, determined to finish the story he’s become obsessed by. ‘About to Fall Apart is the exhilarating story of a man of mixed heritage – living on the Irish border – as he tries to stay positive, reconnect with his children and maybe, even, find his own birth mother’ says the blurb promisingly. Hickson-Lovence is a poet, part of the attraction for me with this one.

Told from the perspectives of three women, Louise Nealon’s Everything That is Beautiful follows Niamh Ryan who spent much of her childhood on the Foley’s farm playing with Peter and Kate, doted on by their mother Helen. Things are more complicated now: Peter’s failing to cope with the breakdown of their relationship; Kate’s struggling with family secrets and guilt while Helen is checking into guesthouses under assumed names. With a wedding on the horizon, things look about to come to a head. ‘Everything That Is Beautiful unfolds the story of one complicated family in startlingly honest prose. By turns funny and deeply moving, and with unmatched emotional intelligence, this is an unforgettable story of love and family, heartbreak and hope – and who we might become after we pick up the pieces’ says the blurb a little floridly.

April’s short story collection is Lucy Caldwell’s Devotions which comes garlanded with praise from the likes of Mary Costello and Jan Carson. The stories range from a professional musician’s timeslip on a transatlantic night flight to a man haunted by loss and a newfound understanding of what love means. ‘Transporting and profound, these are stories of love, grief, longing, of new beginnings, and the ways we find shelter in each other’ says the blurb promisingly.

That’s it for April’s new fiction. As ever, a click on a title will take you to a more detailed synopsis should you want to know more, and if you’d like to catch up with part one it’s here. Paperbacks soon…