Meet and Delete

By Pauline Lawless

Pauline Lawless’ fifth novel is a frolic through the world of online dating in Ireland. It’s estimated that 20 million internet users log on to dating sites at least once a month. Dating is the third most popular internet service, so it’s no surprise Pauline wrote a book about it. The story is an old-fashioned boy meets girl, or should we say boys meet girls, as there are three heroines – Claire, Megan and Viv.

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Megan is an Irish book editor whose fiancé cancels their wedding just weeks before the big day. Viv is a personal shopper and the one responsible for starting the online dating game with her friends. Claire is a children’s nurse who’s not really looking for Mr Right, but joins in on the fun anyway. However, none of them are aware of the roads that lie ahead.

The story kicks off when the three girls move in together in Dublin. While they are out on dates and having lots of fun, things get a little more complicated when Claire’s sister, who is bored of marriage, embraces online dating, while Megan’s thrice-married mother is also on the lookout for a toy boy. This is an interesting account of how the dating game in Ireland has changed massively in the last few years. So if you’re a chick-flick kind of girl or love a good, old, soppy romance, this is the perfect read for you.

A Time for Friends

By Patricia Scanlan (Simon & Schuster)

Here in Irish Country Living we’re big Patricia Scanlan fans. So when her new novel, A Time for Friends, hit the shelves, we quickly flicked through the pages. One of Scanlan’s key strengths is the relationships that she creates within her books and she has done it once again in this novel. It tells the story of Hilary and Colette O’Mahony who have been friends since childhood. However, when Hilary goes into business with the uncontrollable Johnathan Harpur, tensions mount.

Collette isn’t his biggest fan and considers him to be a “pushy start”, while his impression of her is “a snobby diva”. This really impacts on Colette and Hilary as Hilary is caught in the middle.

As the years role by and each of them is faced with tough times and hard decisions, one thing remains clear – to have a friend, you must be a friend. Hilary soon discovers that sometimes your best friend can be your worst enemy. Considered as one of the ultimate comfort reads, once you start this story you won’t be able to stop.

A Shadow in the Yard

By Liz McManus (Ward River Press)

This is a book to be read with care and pleasure. Liz McManus has packed so many of our 20th century Irish problems into this novel that at moments you become breathless with anxiety.

When a swan lands in the yard of Rosaleen McAvady’s home on Lough Swilly, it is trapped and cannot escape. She asks her elderly neighbour, Tom Mundy, for help and, as a result, this sets off a chain of events that will have serious repercussions.

After a brief career as an architect, Rosaleen has settled for marriage and children. Life is secure and predictable but she now finds herself wanting to stretch her wings.

Dramatic political unrest in Northern Ireland soon casts its shadow and, even though these events have nothing to do with Rosaleen, she realises that beneath the surface of her normal everyday family life, violence and betrayal threaten her and her life. Like the swan in the yard, can she escape or will she be trapped forever? Liz McManus shows optimism in her writing that is infectious and makes you turn the pages with pleasure.

The Laughing Monsters

By Denis Johnson (Harvill Secker)

If you’re into a more serious read, then a good novel to check out this month is Denis Johnson’s The Laughing Monsters, a tale of pure loyalties before the 9/11 disaster.

Roland Nair, the main character, calls himself Scandinavian but travels on a US passport. After 10 years, he returns to Freetown, Sierra Leone, to reunite with his friend Michael Adriko. They once made a lot of money there during the country’s civil war and are curious to see if they can do it again.

Although Nair thinks some kind of money-making plan will happen, Adriko’s real reason for inviting his friend to Freetown is for Nair to meet Adriko’s fiancée, a grad student from Colorado named Davidia.

Together, the three set out on a journey to visit Adriko’s African tribe in the Uganda-Congo borderland – but each of these travellers is keeping secrets from the others.

Their journey through a land with little hope leads Nair, Adriko and Davidia to see each other not in a new light, but rather in a new darkness. Here, amid the guns and the mud, there is only one thing for certain – nothing ever lasts.