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With summer stretching ahead, whether you have travel plans or the plan is to enjoy some quiet time at home, we hope you’ll find plenty of time to get some extra reading in. To help kick-start things, today we’re bringing you a selection of our DBF Recommended Summer Reads. From gripping thrillers to compulsive family and friendship dramas, these are just some of the great page-turners available to help fill those long summer days.
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Jen Bray’s debut novel The Lies Between Us is a tense family drama and crime novel with buried secrets at the heart of it. Estranged sisters Lucy, Susannah and Tara are due to reunite at their family’s idyllic holiday cottage, until Susannah disappears and a woman’s body is found on a beach nearby. When a connection is made between Susannah and the victim, Lucy needs to draw on her short-lived policing career to solve the mystery and find her sister–even if the truth might destroy her family.
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Experts in a Dying Field by Patrick Freyne is a sharp and witty novel about friendship, secrets, the strange workings of grief and guilt, and the joyful alchemy of music. The Heathens thought of themselves as 'the 1000th best band of all time', until their tour van crashed, and one of their members died. Twenty years later, unusual circumstances are bringing the surviving members of the band together in ways none of them could have anticipated, lifting the lid on mysteries from their shared past.
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Everything That is Beautiful by Louise Nealon is a funny and deeply moving story of friendship and complicated families; about love, loyalty and heartbreak. The Foleys were like family to Niamh, her childhood spent playing with best friend Peter and his sister Kate, and being doted on by their mother. Now, following a distressing series of events, relationships are strained and each is battling their own demons. Can a looming wedding that will bring them back together finally heal old wounds?
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Kathleen MacMahon's latest novel Other People’s Lives is a beautifully observed and poignant story exploring marriage, friendship, and midlife choices. As schoolgirls, Justine and best friend Iseult dreamed of a future that revolved around marriage. Now approaching fifty, the realities of marriage, for herself and those around her, compel Justine to question the choices herself and Iseult made decades earlier.
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Short stories make the perfect holiday companion and Dermot Bolger’s latest collection is no exception. Imperfect Beings captures those unexpected moments when past loves and choices resurface with startling clarity. These stories explore ageing, memory, and the lingering imprint of first encounters. From childhood holidays shadowed by tragedy to chance reunions that rewrite old narratives, Bolger’s characters wrestle with Yeats’s 'rag and bone shop of the heart', revealing the fragile beauty of human connection.
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Joan, a public servant in her fifties, is in the habit of living alone with only her rituals and routines, until a career break prompts her to take in a young lodger. Rituals by Danielle McLaughlin is a story both humorous and full of humanity, with an unforgettable protagonist at the heart of it; a tender, funny and poignant novel that celebrates the bravery involved in opening our hearts to change and to chance.
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Authors Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen, who brought us the much-loved Aisling series, have teamed up again with a completely new offering. Our Deadly Summer is a humorous and heartfelt story of friendship, young women and bad men, replete with noughties nostalgia. Laura and Dee haven't spoken since the day they buried a body together. What should have been a dream summer in America goes wrong to say the least. More than 20 years later, can they confront the past and rekindle that best friendship?
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Limited Tickets Remaining:
An Evening with Lisa Jewell and Andrea Mara
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Tuesday 16 June, 7pm, RIAM - Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin 2
Speaking of page-turners, there is still time to join us for our last event of the summer, where internationally bestselling authors Lisa Jewell and Andrea Mara will be delving into their brand new psychological thrillers. The authors join bestselling crime novelist Sinéad Crowley for an unmissable evening of conversation around books that keep us hooked from start to finish. Only limited tickets remain, so be sure to snap yours up now.
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At Dublin Book Festival our belief is that literature and the joy of a good book is for everyone, which is why we continue to keep as many of our events as possible free, with our full weekend of family events each November remaining free as always. By supporting us to any amount, you will be contributing towards keeping future events accessible, as well as supporting the writers and artists we work with, bringing as many authors and illustrators as possible together with their audiences!
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As always we want to thank you for all the new and continued support.
Until next time!
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