Beneath the Cedar Tree by Frank Shouldice (Liffey Press, €19.95)
This debut novel, set in 1995, recounts an unusual tale of tragedy and redemption. When the murderer of Brendan and Irene Gogarty’s son is released four years early from prison, the couple, already damaged by their grief, spiral into fury and full-scale marital breakdown. In a moment of dubious inspiration, they seek succour at the holy site of Medjugorje, in the middle of a war zone. Neither are religious, however, and after the first quest fails, they embark on a road trip across the Balkans. When they meet a war-wounded Bosnian couple also in need of succour, things begin to change. Written in clean, straight prose with sharp edges and a mischievous, earthy humour, the book’s dénouement offers a moving and unanticipated way for the Gogartys to heal. Helena Mulkerns
How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder by Nina McConigley (Fleet, £20)
This is the tale of 12-year-old Georgie, who together with her older sister, the wonderfully named Agatha Krishna, take it upon themselves to poison their uncle. It’s the late 1980s and Vinny Uncle, his wife and son have recently arrived from India to share the Creel family‘s small house in rural Wyoming, where their mother’s brother’s abhorrent behaviour soon has the reader rooting for the murderous tweens. Colorado-based Nina McConigley has been feted far and wide for her short stories, but this first attempt at long-form fiction falls a little flat. It’s an easy, irreverent and sometimes humorous read, but it never really fully grips. Her characters feel more like rough outlines than real, breathing humans that we can care deeply about. John Walshe
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Wise: Finding purpose, meaning and wisdom beyond the midpoint of life by Frank Tallis (Abacus, £22)
The term “midlife crisis” dates from the 1960s, but the earliest Greek philosophers pondered existentialism, and in the 14th century Dante Alighieri began his Divine Comedy “lost” – “at the mid-point of the path through life”. Psychologist Frank Tallis urges self-analysis and self-actualisation, rather than mere self-help, or excessive physical efforts to stay young, in this in-depth survey of ancient and contemporary wisdom. He writes that, regardless of what has been achieved before midlife, everyone is obliged one day to stand, like Dante, uncertain and anxious about what lies ahead. He echoes Carl Jung’s advice that “the greatest potential for growth and self-realisation exists in the second half of life”. Ray Burke
