Prophet Song won the Booker Prize in 2023, and is a searing and breathtaking novel about Ireland descending into fascism and tyranny. It's all too believable and terrifying in light of the rise of the far-right in many parts of the world. The story is told from the perspective of an ordinary family woman in Dublin, whose union organiser husband has disappeared. What happens over the course of the next few weeks is devastating, as society collapses and nothing is certain. An extraordinary book.

Home Truths is about a family of four in England in 2019, middle class, comfortable; a normal family. Scott's brother dies in tragic circumstances, wracked with guilt he searches for answers online, and falls into the world of conspiracy theories. Then comes Covid, and it all accelerates. Livia in the meantime tries her best to hold the family together, but it all begins to unravel. This is a thrilling and unsettling read, as Norman with her usual astute psychology understands how easy it is to lose ones grip on reality in the right circumstances.

Set, as usual, in the fictional Irish village of Faha, but this time at Christmas 1962, this beautiful novel revisits the eccentricity and gentle humour of the tough life in Ireland, and the moral choices people find themselves making. Every sentence is a delight, which makes reading this a slower experience, and one to be savoured. It's painfully moving, very atmospheric, told in luminous prose, and so profound it doesn't really matter what it's about!

This is a pretty incredible book about the world of music through every aspect of it, from the emotional and physical response to it, the practical issues around recording, distribution and technology, performance and the nature of venues, etc etc. It's very broad, but always personal to David Byrne's own lifetime of experience. It's also written in a very fluid and compelling way. It's a vital book for any music lover, even those who aren't Talking Heads fans, although you may become one by reading it!

Kathleen Jamie is a Scottish poet and nature writer. This is her fourth book of prose, and is a collection of short pieces about her observations on the world around her, domestic and seemingly insignificant events and activities that resonate with a wisdom and beauty that only Kathleen Jamie could pull off. Some are perhaps prose poems rather than essays, some merely fragments, but each have a real power and strength. That said, I do think this book is more for Jamie fans than readers new to her, so I would recommend starting with Findings, or Sightlines.

A collection of three strange, mysterious stories from a prominent fresh voice in Japanese writing, these stories were originally published in Japan between 2017 and 2020. Each starts in a quite normal, domestic setting, but quickly becomes magical and surreal, but the reader is carried along with the narrative. It's a quite special little book.