Making an audience want to read a book about a depressed woman who finds it hard to cope living from day to day must have been a daunting task. Yet in Grace Notes (Vintage, £8.05), Bernard MacLaverty has carried it off with ease. Readers feel closer to the main character, Catherine McKenna, because of her blunt honesty. We get a fully rounded view of the individual which I've found to be rare in the books I read. Travelling to Northern Ireland to attend her father's funeral, Catherine is reintroduced to all the elements of a life that she had run away from years before. Grace Notes traces her life story before and after the funeral and will leave readers wanting to read more of Mr MacLaverty's novels.