Arifa Akbar looks back at her sister’s unhappy childhood, her early death and the dysfunctional family life that ruined their relationship in this honest and thoughtful memoir

Hilarious and chilling by turns, Alix O’Neill’s memoir of growing up in 1990s Belfast is an enlightening read

In this modernistic, episodic and satisfying novel, Keith Ridgway

Mindful of the long summer months ahead, we’ve put together a list of perfect boredom busters for holidays at home

Journalist Julie Kavanagh’s account of the murders of two members of the British authority in Ireland in 1882 has the plot and intrigue of a sweeping 19th-century novel

With his new children’s book now on the shelves, the bestselling Irish author well known to readers for his adventures as Dublin southside rugby god Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, offers his best tips on how to write a children’s book

Sydney-based novelist Meg Mason has hit a nerve with her acclaimed novel Sorrow and Bliss – about to be made into a film – whose narrator suffers from debilitating bouts of mental illness

Magic realism sets the tone in Anne Griffin’s novel Listening Still, where the protagonist is able to sit and chat with the recently deceased

Past meets present in Patrick McGrath's shifting, dreamlike novel featuring a Spanish Civil War veteran ‘haunted’ by visions of Franco

All of human life is there in John Green’s thoughtful essay collection, adapted from his podcast of the same name

Susan McKay’s collection locates politicians, activists, artists, religious leaders, students, business owners and many diverse others, and lets them speak for themselves

Ten years after the Arab Spring and the subsequent cruelties brought upon the people of the Middle East, Iyad El-Baghdadi and Ahmed Gatnash argue that the region is a third of the way through its transition to democracy

Esther Freud was lucky: her unmarried Irish mother escaped 1960s Catholic Ireland, but the characters in her novel are subjected to the brutality of a judgmental and unforgiving society

A strict upbringing and deep-seated insecurity are credited with making Alfred Hitchcock into cinema’s master of the thriller in this enjoyable biography

Jhumpa Lahiri’s latest novel is superbly written and deeply meditative

Louise Nealon’s hugely enjoyable debut novel is about a naive but clairvoyant country girl from a dysfunctional family making her way through college life in an unfamiliar and unfriendly city

Eddie O’Connor’s autobiography is required reading for anyone starting off in business who wants to break into the big league

Owen O’Shea’s meticulously researched history of an IRA ambush during the War of Independence where five men died reveals the complexity of the operation and the similar histories of the men on either side

The English historian’s new book details the many ways in which women have been failed by the medical profession down the years

The food writer on working with Anthony Bourdain, the late chef, and the destinations that have captured her heart