I FOUND MY TRIBE by Ruth Fitzmaurice (Chatto & Windus)
Co Louth native Ruth Fitzmaurice and her husband Simon were happily married and expecting their third child when he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2008. Given only three years to live, he is still alive nearly a decade later, but can now only communicate with his eyes. Fitzmaurice struggles – with Simon's decline and the pressure of looking after their five children in the home in Greystones, Co Wicklow. But in the midst of all this, she finds her 'tribe' – the Tragic Wives' Swimming Club, a group of friends who regularly brave the Irish Sea to gain a fleeting moment of exhilaration, normality and freedom. Fitzmaurice's book is poetic, devastating, life-affirming and funny.
Verena Vogt
INTO THE WATER by Paula Hawkins (Doubleday)
The follow-up novel to the huge-seller The Girl On The Train is set in a village in Northumberland, where Jules Abbott returns home following the death of her estranged sister, Nel. Was it suicide or foul play? The plot quickly thickens, as the stretch of water where she's found has a long history as the scene of a series of tragic female deaths. Nel herself was artistically obsessed with this place, known locally as The Drowning Pool, and the book similarly seeks to draw us in to its darkly compelling depths. Hawkins is very good at describing characters experiencing extreme emotions, and there are passages and scenes that are gripping.
Dan Brotzel
THE MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS by Arundhati Roy (Hamish Hamilton)
The heaviest tome on our list comes 20 years after Arundhati Roy's debut novel, The God Of Small Things. The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness mines her research on India's troubled political system, delicately braiding together strands of the brutal, toxic – and ongoing – Kashmir conflict, with the difficulties faced by a community of hijra (transgender people, who are now recognised as the 'third gender' in Indian law) and the fate of a baby abandoned on a rubbish-strewn street. Roy's use of language is beautiful and inventive – she demands your mind and your time, and the rewards are huge.
Ella Walker
THE SUNSHINE SISTERS by Jane Green (Macmillan)
Definitely the 'beachiest' book of our picks, this is the story of beautiful and charismatic B-movie actress Ronni's three daughters. Self-absorbed and disinterested, Ronni wasn't the mother she wanted to be. Nell, Meredith and Lizzy have been left to their own devices, estranged from their Ronni – and each other – until in adulthood they are all summoned home. Ronni is ill. Not her usual 'headache', but she has motor neurone disease and is at the end of her life. Can this fractured family forgive their past and heal? This novel pulls on the heartstrings, but also feels like coming home.
Rachel Howdle
THE GIRLFRIEND by Michelle Frances (Pan Macmillan)
Laura and her son Daniel have always been close, but for the past few years, he's been away at university. When he returns home after graduating, she relishes spending time with him. In a matter of days though, Daniel meets Cherry, a bright, ambitious estate agent who has always wanted more for herself. Laura invites Cherry over for a family meal, but rather than forging a friendship, the two women get off to a less than auspicious start. Michelle Frances's skill lies in taking a relationship familiar to many, and creating two characters who transform it into something much more malignant, keeping the reader on a knife-edge throughout.
Jade Craddock
BUT SERIOUSLY by John McEnroe (W&N)
If you're missing McEnroe's iconic voice in his Wimbledon commentaries, dip into his second autobiography. His first, 2003's Serious, charted his childhood and early days of tennis – which progressed to seven Grand Slam singles titles, the 'Superbrat' reputation and a tumultuous eight-year marriage to actress Tatum O'Neal, marred by her addiction battles, his hot temper and a prolonged custody battle for their three children. Now, the follow-up deals with his struggles to reinvent himself as a father, art collector, musician and broadcaster, his relationship with second wife Patty Smyth, and his efforts to be the best father he could to his six children.
Kate Whiting
THE CHILD by Fiona Barton (Bantam Press)
Journalist Kate Waters is back and this time investigating the decades-old skeleton of a baby found on an east London building site. Kate is determined to find out who buried the baby and if it's Alice Irving, a newborn stolen from a local maternity hospital in the Seventies. The pace of Kate's investigation is matched by the unravelling story of Emma Massingham, who is struggling to come to terms with her own past. Every couple of chapters, Barton kicks the novel's suspense into a new gear, and you won't be able to put it down until all the secrets have been shared.
Rebecca Wilcock
WEDDING TOASTS I'LL NEVER GIVE by Ada Calhoun (W.W. Norton & Company)
Ada Calhoun's new book of essays is no place for soul mates and generic declarations of togetherness. Instead, there's resentment for missing flights, breaking bathroom taps and finding other people attractive. If this sounds cynical, it's not meant to be; Calhoun is supportive of love and those who seek it out. Her sweetest moments are those where she zones in on the minutiae of her marriage and being a parent. Calhoun reserves her final essay for the one speech she would give newlyweds. Hopeful, sensible and grounded in reality, it serves as guidance to those in long-term relationships and those embarking on them.
Keeley Bolger
