A Key to Treehouse Living
Elliot Reed
Meville House, £8.99
William Tyce is a boy who has set himself an impossible task; to define a world that is constantly changing, even as he is trying to understand his place in it. Abandoned by his father, orphaned by his mother’s death, William is compiling a glossary of his own life.
Somehow, through a series of seemingly random entries, author Elliot Reed manages to narrate a story that is simultaneously as idiosyncratic as his protagonist and as universal as William's hopes and fears and dreams. Brief, intense vignettes on topics as various as "Homicide" and "Chicken Hawk", "Sleeping on the Floor" and "Kernels of the Past" invite the reader to view life from the perspective of a child who recognises that sometimes it doesn't matter how brave you are because life will happen anyway. A quirky and original debut that demands to be read as more than a sum of its considerable poetic parts. – Becky Long
A People's History of Heaven
Mathangi Subramanian
Oneworld, £8.99
Heaven is a place on earth – but not where you might think. Subramanian's debut adult novel is set in "Heaven", a Bangalore slum, where five teenage girls have grown up among clamour and colour, fiercely loyal to each other and their community. When local government bulldozers show up to tear their neighbourhood down, the girls join protests and their stories unfold in flashbacks to their childhoods and before. Life has never been easy for Heaven's residents, especially the women, but they never see themselves as victims; there is genuine fun and joy in their lives, poetry, history, beauty and practicality over self-pity. Even through the tragedies of lives lived in incomprehensible harshness this is a beautifully crafted tale which glows with lyricism, colour and tenderness. – Claire Looby
The Saviours
By Maeve Galvin
Merdog, £12
The world of international aid work is rich with surprising details and moral complexity, which Maeve Galvin sets out to explore in her debut novel. Set mainly in contemporary Phnomh Penh, The Saviours emphasizes the hedonistic lifestyles of over-educated, over-paid aid workers. There are a few well-deserved swipes at the UN and international NGOs, but the focus barely shifts away from the antics of young professionals in ex-pat bars and luxury resorts, or back home in Sacramento and Galway. A throwaway domestic violence sub-plot is resolved as predictably as if it were in an NGO's annual report. The contrast between contemporary aid workers and the eponymous "white saviours" of the 1980s and 1990s (mavericks who sacrificed much but sometimes did unacknowledged harm) goes sadly unexplored. – Carol Ballantine
Aria
Nazanine Hozar
Viking, £14.99
"That is the Caspian: the great deceiver. It is two things at once. That's where beauty lies." The beauty of multiplicity is central to Nazanine Hozar's debut novel, Aria, which tracks the events leading up to, and human impulses behind, the Iranian revolution. "Aria" – an orphan, who straddles economic and religious divides – is our protagonist; a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time, and a personification ("Aria" means "Iran") of a country divided. She is tempestuous and kind, driven by anger and by love, and the book wills readers to consider anew the narrative of a country so often misunderstood. The somewhat old-fashioned technique of omniscient narration takes getting used to, as do the large cast of characters and expansive time frame (1953 to 1981). But settle in and Aria is an alluring and enlightening read. – Niamh Donnelly
Whiskers, Feathers and Fur: Veterinary Tales
By Austin Donnelly
Orla Kelly Publishing
Austin Donnelly has spent the best part of a decade caring for animals and their people. This collection of stories illustrates his straightforward dedication to the care of his charges, whether in a small town, a rural clinic, or a farm in various locations in Ireland, England and Australia. In childhood he witnessed the loss of a mare and foal in tragic circumstances, and that experience tempered his affinity for animals, something he shares with many animal lovers. The tales are as much about the people he has met as the animals, who aren't the only ones with tricky temperaments, and there's more than a hint of gentle fire-side story-telling woven into his recollections of feisty heifers, adored dogs and bereaved piglets. – Claire Looby
Tintawn and Binder Twine
John Rigby-Jones
Fonthill, £35
This is the story of Irish Ropes, a company established and run by the author's grandfather, Eric Rigby-Jones. With his family's rope business in Liverpool facing a precarious future, the decorated former British army officer left his young family behind to risk setting up a new factory in the Irish Free State. It began in a disused British cavalry barracks in Newbridge, Co Kildare, in 1933, and became famous for its Red Setter binder twine and Tintawn sisal carpets. It was supplying most of Ireland's rope within four years. This well-illustrated, readable and informative account reveals a skilled businessman and diplomat, who treated his workforce well and overcame many obstacles. We also get valuable insights into Irish and Anglo-Irish economic, social and political history from the 1930s to the 1970s. – Brian Maye
