Lazy City, Rachel Connolly ( hardback August 2023)
$23.00
Following the death of her best friend, Erin has to get out of London. Returning home to Belfast, an au pair job provides a partial refuge from her grief and her volatile relationship with her mother. Erin spends late nights at the bar where her childhood friend Declan works.There Erin meets an American academic who is also looking to get lost. Parallel to this she reconnects with an old flame, Mikey. This brings its own web of complications.
With a startlingly fresh and original voice - jarringly funny, cranky, often hungover - Lazy City depicts the strange, meandering aftermath that follows disaster.
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Milkman, by Anna Burns ( paperback 2019)
$13.00
Longlisted for the 2018 Booker Prize.
Anna Burns is originally from Belfast but is now based in England.
Milkman is “ a story of hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is the story of inaction with enormous consequences “
Powerful, stream of consciousness prose that feels exhausting but gets under your skin as an astute account of Northern Ireland’s social landscape, and ultimately delivers humour, and insight -it's quite brilliant.
Flying Tips for Flightless Birds, by Kelly McCaughrain (paperback)
$11.00
Twins Finch and Birdie Franconi are stars of the flying trapeze. But when Birdie suffers a terrifying accident, Finch must team up with the geeky new kid, Hector Hazzard, to form an all-boys double act and save the family circus school
Recently shortlisted for the Great Reads Award, this debut YA novel is funny, warm hearted and encouraging for anyone who feels they just don’t fit ‘the mould’.
The Unknowns, by Shirley-Anne McMillan ( paperback 2017)
$11.00
A teenage story of friendship, and boundaries, and preconceptions. Likeable main characters of Tilly and Brew, it’s edgy but realistic. My 15yo enjoyed this a lot.
Shirley Anne is from Lisburn and this is her second novel.
Tilly is perched at the top of Belfast's largest crane. She likes to climb up high at night in order to feel free from a city which, despite the best PR, is still full of trouble and conflict. Eventually, she comes back down to discover her bike is missing and in its place is a boy named Brew.
Wearing eyeliner and high-heeled boots, he offers her a drink from his flask of coffee before disappearing into the night. The next morning, Tilly's bike is returned, but tucked into the spoke of the wheel is a card with Brew's number on it. As Tilly learns to trust Brew, he leads her into a world she never knew existed - a world of parties in abandoned houses, completing missions that involve break-ins, and risking everything just to help strangers in need; the world of The Unknowns.
What Tilly doesn't anticipate is that they will also make her question everything she was brought up to believe in, and force her to make a choice that will stay with her for the rest of her life. The Unknowns is a story about hope in a city where increasing numbers of young people are struggling to get by, a place where there is no trust in the political system, and where some people still dare to dream.
Thirteen, Steve Cavanagh ( paperback 2018)
$13.00
This is the fourth book from Belfast based writer Steve Cavanagh, and it has pushed him up to the forefront of best contemporary crime writers across the globe. His own career as a barrister means that we get an insightful twisty and satisfying page turner. You’ll love it.
To your knowledge, is there anything that would preclude you from serving on this jury? 'Murder wasn't the hard part. It was just the start of the game. Joshua Kane has been preparing for this moment his whole life.
He's done it before. But this is the big one. This is the murder trial of the century.
And Kane has killed to get the best seat in the house. But there's someone on his tail. Someone who suspects that the killer isn't the man on trial.
Kane knows time is running out - he just needs to get to the conviction without being discovered.
