Patricia Scanlan was born in Dublin, where she still lives. She is a No 1 bestselling author and has sold millions of books worldwide. Her books are translated in many languages. Patricia is the series editor and a contributing author to the award winning Open Door Literacy series.
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Conversation with the Sea – Hugo Hamilton – Hachette Books Ireland
Fleeing 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.
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Still – Julia Kelly – New Island Books
A profoundly affecting memoir of grief that brings its subject to life in an unforgettable and unexpectedly joyous way.
Julia Kelly’s mother, Delphine, spent much of her life in the shadows as a politician’s wife, tending selflessly to the needs of her husband, John, and five wild children. Rattling around in a draughty house, the siblings – though much-loved – are left largely to their own devices, tended to by a series of hapless au-pairs, dodging mouse invasions and forever in search of their exhausted mother’s attention.
When John collapses of a heart attack at the age of fifty-nine, it is a sad liberation for his wife. Unshackled from her domestic duties, Delphine undergoes a transformation. She embraces sea-swimming and, along with a coterie of elderly ladies, sets out on adventures to far-flung places. Her final journey is to the Galapagos Islands where, hit by an unexpected wave, she loses her balance and is forced underwater. When her body surfaces she is no longer breathing. The book left on her bedside locker in the hotel is 1,000 Places to See Before You Die.
Mired in grief, the five siblings begin the long repatriation of their mother’s body. But it is the post-mortem report that provides the key to Julia’s healing and recovery: gradually, within the clinical descriptions of limbs and eyes, heart and toes, Julia finds solace. Taking inspiration from each body part, she breathes life into Delphine – finally still and fully present for the first time in her seventy-two years – in gorgeous, luminous prose.
What leaps from the pages of Still is someone unforgettable: a vibrant, complex woman, whose endless capacity for love continues to inspire and comfort. In the end, She died as she had always strived to live: in the middle of a huge adventure, diving into the great unknown.
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The Book of Magdalene – Ita Kennedy – Amazon
Power built on secrets. Desire laced with danger. And one woman they can’t control. Magdalene Rose clawed her way out of a brutal past to become the enigmatic owner of New York City’s most exclusive nightlife empire — a decadent world of high-end clubs and private bondage salons where power and pleasure intertwine.
But when a prominent client is found murdered just steps from her club’s velvet ropes, Magdalene’s carefully constructed kingdom begins to crack. The detective assigned to the case? Her ex — the one man who saw her before she became untouchable.
As the investigation unfolds, Magdalene is drawn into a shadowy war between secret societies with ties to the Church, all hellbent on stripping her of the power they never believed she deserved. The deeper the secrets, the more dangerous her truth becomes.
And Magdalene has never played the victim.
But there’s more to her story than anyone could imagine. Because Magdalene isn’t just a woman forged by fire — she is the heir to a legacy long buried...
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Wolf Hour – Jo Nesbo – Harvill Secker
When a small-time crook is shot down in the streets of Minneapolis, all signs point to a lone wolf, a sniper who has vanished into thin air.
To tell it, he needs to get caught. When the shooter strikes again, it’s maverick detective Bob Oz they call in to crack the case.
They don’t think this victim will be the last. And this wolf wants the world to know...
As the body count rises, Oz suspects something even more sinister is at play. And the closer he gets to the truth, the more disturbed he becomes. Because this serial killer reminds him of someone dangerous: himself. He’s only just getting started.
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Katabasis – R.F. Kuang – Harper Voyager
Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek. The story of a hero's descent to the underworld. Grad student Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become the brightest mind in the field of analytic magick.
But the only person who can make her dream come true is dead and – inconveniently – in Hell. And Alice, along with her biggest rival Peter Murdoch, is going after him.
But Hell is not as the philosophers claim, its rules are upside-down, and if she’s going to get out of there alive, she and Peter will have to work together.
That’s if they can agree on anything. Will they triumph, or kill each other trying?
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Sophie’s Swaps –Sophie Morris –Gill Books
When it comes to food, we all want to make the right choices. We’ve heard of ultra-processed foods and how bad they are for us, yet how much do we really know about the products in our shopping trolley? The truth is that limited time and misleading marketing on food labels often result in a kitchen full of ultra-processed foods. But don’t worry – help is at hand.
Through her hugely popular supermarket swap posts, Sophie Morris has already shown hundreds of thousands of Irish shoppers how to replace ultra-processed foods with healthier alternatives. From ketchup to burgers and granola to curry sauce, Sophie knows which brands offer less processed, better quality and often cheaper options – and you’ll be surprised at what you discover. In addition, busy mum Sophie gives you 50 family-favourite recipes for cooking from scratch at home.
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Lantern Smoke – Dagogo Hart (Author) Anita Schmidt (Illustrator) – Gill Books
This beautiful book is based on an autobiographical poem about a young boy sent away by his family to build a future abroad – to find a new and hopeful place to call home.
Told through the light and warmth of a lantern, this is a simple but beautiful story of love, family, and resilience. At a time when more Irish people are living around the world than at home in Ireland, and where many seek refuge on our island from across the globe, Dagogo’s own story holds echoes for us all.
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