A sneak preview of next Saturday’s books pages in The Irish Times

Author John Boyne's followers on Twitter will be aware that he was very excited about a new Irish novel that he had just read non-stop on a flight to South Africa. Today we can reveal it was Tender by Belinda McKeon, and on Saturday, May 30th, you can read his enthusiastic review.

Author Sarah Bannan reviews Left of the Bang by Claire Lowdon.

Robert Dunbar's monthly children's books column looks at Martha Brockenbrough's The Game of Love and Death and Becky Albertalli's Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda.

We also publish this month's winning short story in the Hennessy New Irish Writing competition, Caseload by Justin McCarthy, about a bizarre proposal, and this month's winning poems, by Siobhán Flynn.

Our new poem this week is The Empty House by Bill Tinley, who received a Cecil Day Lewis Award in 2014 and is completing his first short story collection.

Primo Levi's biographer Ian Thomson reviews The Italians by John Hooper.

Literary correspondent Eileen Battersby reviews The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune 1915-1964 by Zachary Leader.

Irish Times soccer correspondent Emmet Malone reviews Matchdays: The Hidden Story of the Bundesliga by Ronald Reng.

Author Molly McCloskey reviews Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids, edited by Meghan Daum.

Malarky author Anakana Schofield's Word for Word column celebrates the contribution of Irish women historians.