Paperbacks to Look Out For in May 2025: Part Two

May’s first paperback preview was a bit of a mishmash but this one has a marriage/relationship theme running through it, albeit mostly unhappy, beginning with Sarah Manguso’s Liars, one of my books of last year. It’s the story of a broken marriage told from the perspective of Jane whose relationship with John grows out of a powerful physical attraction. Her successful writing career stalls in the face of childcare, homemaking and hauling John out of various scrapes, her financial dependence forcing her to trail after him as he moves from one job to another. After fourteen years of telling herself she should be grateful for her happy family, the security John has somehow delivered and the resurrection of her career, she’s faced with the truth of her marriage’s dysfunction. Manguso unfolds her fragmented narrative in stark, striking prose.

We’re in similar territory with Charlotte Mendelson’s Wife. Zoe and Penny have been together for eighteen years during which Penny has bullied and belittled her wife, cajoling her into having the children she’s come to adore, been outraged by her successful career and failed to make the tiniest of compromises. Zoe has soldiered on, locked into the rigid parenting arrangements demanded by her three co-parents, none of whom put their children’s needs first, until an epiphany opens her eyes, and she decides she’s had enough. Mendelson weaves the events of Zoe’s final day in the family home through the story of this supremely dysfunctional relationship.

Set in a small Irish town, Alan Murrin’s The Coast Road explores the state of three marriages – one broken and two under strain – through the women whose independence is thwarted by society’s expectations. We know from the start that Colette’s cottage has burnt down when the police quiz Izzy who spotted smoke in the middle of the night. From there, Murrin winds back the narrative, shifting perspectives between the three wives as he unfolds his story. By the end of the novel, a referendum on divorce is in the offing. Its result won’t be the solution for everyone but will help some. No great literary fireworks here but I enjoyed this absorbing novel which has particularly strong cast of female characters.

A love story, but far from what you might call a romance, Paddy Crewe’s True Love is about two damaged young people who fall deeply in love, opening themselves to each other in a way they’ve never done with anyone else, each seeing the other as their salvation until the first euphoric months are over and reality sinks in. Some might find the pace a little slow although it worked well for me, Crewe taking the time to develop his characters so that I came to care about what happened to them, and much of the descriptive writing is striking.

I’ve sung Anna Quindlen’s praises many times on this blog. Her novels never seem to get the attention they deserve here in the UK. In After Annie, Annie and Bill are an ordinary couple leading busy lives: four children, a plumbing business and working in a care home with not much time for leisure. When Annie collapses after calling out for some Advil while their children sit down to supper, Bill is poleaxed. Thirteen-year-old Ali quietly steps in, doing her best to fill the chasm left by her mother while Annie’s best friend tries hard to keep a grip on her sobriety. With characteristic empathy, Quindlen’s understated, compassionate novel explores the everyday occurrence of death and grief, offering the hope of healing.

That’s it for May. A click on a title will take you to my review should you want to know more, and if you’d like to catch up with part one it’s here. New fiction is here and here.

No more from me until Saturday. H and I are off to Ghent where we were supposed to go in March 2020…