Ordinary Human Failings: The heart-breaking, unflinching, compulsive new novel from the author of Acts of Desperation

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An examination of the way British Conservatives and American Republicans have stoked fears of a “takeover” by marginalised groups. The first novel in a decade from the acclaimed Irish writer focuses on the drama of new motherhood. From the author of Golden Hill and Light Perpetual, a detective story set amid the speakeasies of an alternative 1920s America. The tabloid storyline is less compelling, and an encounter between Tom and Carmel, which feels like an attempt to bring the book’s two strands together, strikes a brief false note. Far better to approach Ordinary Human Failings as literary fiction than as a whodunnit. “There is no secret, Tom, or else there are hundreds of them, and none of them interesting enough for you,” says Carmel. “The secret is that we’re a family, we’re just an ordinary family, with ordinary unhappiness like yours.” Readers will revel in the delicate construction of Nolan’s sentences and fine attunement to the family’s inner lives: Carmel’s dignity, Rose’s sacrifice, John’s humiliation, Richie’s despair.

If I had a criticism, it’s that I didn’t love the inclusion of Tom’s character. While I appreciate the perspective offered by the tabloid media angle, Tom felt somewhat shoehorned into what was already a very strong family story. A gloomy, oppressive story, definitely not a poolside read, but with hints of hope and shades of Claire Keegan. 3.5-4/5⭐️The event that sets in motion Megan Nolan’s second novel is a chilling one – the murder of a minor, seemingly at the hands of another child. Ordinary Human Failings, predominantly set in early-90s London, opens with a frantic investigation to uncover what happened to three-year-old Mia Enright. Her crumpled, bruised body is found by a rubbish chute in the Nunhead council estate where she lived. Neighbours say they last saw her playing with Lucy Green, the unpredictable 10-year-old daughter of an Irish family that has long been the source of xenophobic suspicion amongst the residents of Skyler Square. The story of how Victorian and Edwardian Britain fell in love with cats, from the development of prize breeds to Louis Wain’s artistic obsession. A decade on from the Booker-winning The Luminaries, this is a fast-paced tale of idealism and political infighting in the end times as New Zealand environmental activists run up against an American billionaire. A sweeping history of the Roman emperors, from the brilliant to the debauched, by Britain’s best-known classicist. In a book billed as “part feminist manifesto and part memoir”, Elkin examines female artists including Pussy Riot, Louise Bourgeois and Audre Lorde, celebrating their ability to provoke and disquiet.

Close psychological work is what MN is most confident with. She is most comfortable drawing on her own life experiences rather than trying to create a fantasy.I was talking with a friend lately about an impulse many writers have, not least myself, to finish pieces like this one with some ill-earned flourish of moral clarity. “All articles,” I said, “end in one of two ways: ‘And at the end of the day, who cares?’ or ‘At the end of the day, love is what matters.’” I am trying to resist that impulse. I am trying to avoid casting my indecision about what constitutes happiness as its own kind of moral victory. I am not going to smugly advise that the key to happiness lies in accepting its transience. Finally there’s Rose. She’s John’s beatific, underappreciated second wife, Carmel’s mother and de facto mother to Lucy. Rose’s death – which occurs early in the narrative – along with the alcoholism, creeping anti-Irish sentiment and the Greens’ collective disbelief in their own potential goodness – mires the family. A new author takes over Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, as the story moves to the stark expanses of northern Sweden. From the author of The Knives and Crusaders, a novel of political opportunity and social change focusing on five men amid the discovery of North Sea oil.

The follow-up to her prize-winning debut The Manningtree Witches is a dark story of “insatiable hunger” set in revolutionary France.

Michal Shavit, publishing director at Jonathan Cape, acquired UK & Commonwealth rights from Harriet Moore at David Higham. Follow-up novel to the Booker-shortlisted debut, Real Life, an exploration of love, identity and politics through the connections between a group of lovers and friends.