Hot for 2021: Books, featuring Colm Toibín, Sinead O'Connor, Kazou Ishiguro and more

Irish Fiction

THE ART OF FALLING
Danielle McLaughlin (John Murray)

Expectations are high for the debut novel from the award-winning Danielle McLaughlin, who enjoyed considerable acclaim for her 2015 short story collection, Dinosaurs On Other Planets. She looks set to enjoy similarly strong notices for The Art Of Falling, which focuses on a woman rebuilding her marriage. (January)

THE BALLAD OF LORD EDWARD AND CITIZEN SMALL
Neil Jordan (Lilliput)

Renowned as the director of cinematic hits such as The Crying Game, Interview With The Vampire and The Butcher Boy, Jordan also has a nice sideline as one of Ireland’s most acclaimed fiction writers. His follow-up to the 2017 fantasy Carnivalesque icentres on Lord Edward Fitzgerald’s servant Tony Small, who was an escaped slave. This will no doubt prove another fascinating effort from Jordan. (February)

BRIGHT BURNING THINGS
Lisa Harding (Bloomsbury)

Actress, playwright and author Lisa Harding enjoyed a hugely successful debut with the darkly gripping Harvesting, which is set to be made into a movie by Derry Girls director Michael Lennox. Boasting advance endorsements from everybody from Lisa McInerney to Roddy Doyle, Bright Burning Things – about a one-time actress struggling with addiction and the fear of losing her son – is likely to receive similar acclaim. (March)

REDDER DAYS
Sue Rainsford (Random House)

Longlisted for the Desmond Eliot Prize for her debut novel Follow Me To Ground, Dublin-based Sue Rainsford’s sophomore effort has an intriguing premise: it centres on twins living in an abandoned commune whilst awaiting an apocalyptic event. When one of the commune’s previous inhabitants returns, the twins are forced re-evaluate all they assumed to be true. (March)

LISTENING STILL
Anne Griffin (Sceptre)

Telling the tale of an 80-something Meath farmer reflecting on five key people in his life, Anne Griffin’s 2019 debut When All Is Said was a number one bestseller bearing endorsements from the likes of Kit de Waal, John Banville and Graham Norton. There could be comparable blockbuster success in store for Listening Still, which concerns a young woman with the ability to hear the dead. (April)

THE RULES OF REVELATION
Lisa McInerney (John Murray)

McInerney completes her modern Corkonian trilogy with The Rules Of Revelation, which once again features Rebel county rogue Ryan Cusack at the centre of the action. Also in the mix are former sex worker Georgie, who wants the truth about Ryan’s past; Mel, who has returned from Brexit Britain and is ill-equipped to deal with a family scandal; and Karina, who has a terrible secret gnawing away at her. (May)

THE MAGICIAN
Colm Toibin (Viking)

Having explored the life of Henry James in The Master, Colm Toibin turns his attention to Death In Venice author Thomas Mann. The Magician uses the contradictions and epic sweep of Mann’s work as a means of examining 20th century life. One of Ireland’s most exalted authors, Toibin could find himself with another glut of prize nominations for this. (September)

SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE
Claire Keegan (Faber)

Stories scarcely come more acclaimed than Claire Keegan’s ‘Foster’, which just over a decade ago was selected for the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award by Richard Ford and described by The Observer as “among the finest stories recently written in English”. For good measure, it is now also part of the English Leaving Cert syllabus. As such, there is huge interest in her upcoming novel, which focuses on coal merchant Bill Furlong, who makes a discovery at the local convent that precipitates a life-changing act. (October)

International Fiction

LUSTER
Ravel Leilani (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

A one-time student of Zadie Smith at NYU, Ravel Leilani has created one of the year’s most anticipated debuts. Race, work, sex, love and more are addressed in this story about Edie, a twenty-something woman who deals with the fallout from her relationship with an older man, after being fired from her dead-end office job. Hailed for its style and insight, Luster looks set to to establish Leilani as of America’s pre-eminent young literary stars. (January)

KLARA AND THE SUN
Kazou Ishiguro (Faber)

Celebrated for the likes of The Remains Of The Day and Never Let Me Go, Kazou Ishiguro this year returns with his first novel since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. Described as a “thrilling feat of world building”, the story explores what it means to love, and will no doubt boast the emotional power that is Ishiguro’s hallmark. (March)

STEPHEN KING
Later (Titan Books)

The horror maestro’s cultural stock is at all-time high thanks to the blockbuster IT film adaptations, his profound influence on Stranger Things and sundry TV versions of his work. Rivalling The Fall when it comes to prolific output, his 1,227th novel focuses on a boy with psychic abilities called upon to aid a NYPD detective, who’s trying to prevent a killer from striking beyond the grave. (March)

LADY JOKER
Kaoru Takamura (Soho Crime)

A sensation in Takamura’s native Japan, Lady Joker – this year making its English language bow – is based on the true crime kidnapping case that rocked ’90s Tokyo, perpetrated by the mysterious “Monster with 21 Faces”. (April)

THE DARK REMAINS
William McIlvaney & Ian Rankin (Canongate)

Dubbed “the godfather of Tartan noir” for his famed DI Laidlaw books, when William McIlvaney passed away in 2015, he left a handwritten manuscript for a new novel. Now, McIlvaney’s spiritual heir, Ian Rankin, has put the finishing touches to the story, which is set in Glasgow in 1972 and serves as a prequel to the Laidlaw series. (September)

HARLEM SHUFFLE
Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)

One of the year’s most mouth-watering literary prospects, the two-time Pulitzer winner’s latest is a heist novel set in ’60s Harlem. It focuses on struggling furniture salesman Ray Carney, whose life is turned upside down when his cousin Freddie’s plans to rob the Hotel Theresa goes awry. This should be epic. (September)

Non-Fiction

FRANCIS BACON: REVELATIONS
Mark Stevens & Annalyn Swan (William Collins) 

Written with the full cooperation of the Bacon estate, this has been described as the definitive biography of the Irish-born painter, arguably the greatest and most influential artist of the 20th century. (January)

REMEMBERINGS
Sinéad O’Connor (Sandycove)

The singer looks back on a life of controversy, struggle and unforgettable music in this highly anticipated memoir. (June)

MY MESS IS A BIT OF A LIFE
Georgia Pritchett (Faber)

A writer on two of the greatest TV shows of the 21st century, Veep and Succession, Pritchett’s memoir reflects on living with anxiety. (June)