The Other Hand- Chris Cleave

This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice. Two years later, they meet again -- the story starts there

The Clothes on their back- Linda Grant

In a red brick mansion block off the Marylebone Road, Vivien, a sensitive, bookish girl grows up sealed off from both past and present by her timid refugee parents. Then one morning a glamorous uncle appears, dressed in a mohair suit, with a diamond watch on his wrist and a girl in a leopard-skin hat on his arm

Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao- Junot Diaz

Things have never been easy for Oscar. A ghetto nerd living with his Dominican family in New Jersey, he's sweet but disastrously overweight. He dreams of becoming the next J.R.R. Tolkien and he keeps falling hopelessly in love.

 American Wife- Curtis Sittenfeld

In the year 2000, in the closest election in American history, Alice Blackwell's husband becomes president of the United States. Their time in the White House proves to be heady, tumultuous, and controversial.

Brooklyn- Colm Toibin

In a small town in the south-east of Ireland in the 1950s, Eilis Lacey is one among many of her generation who cannot find work at home. So when a job is offered in America, it is clear that she must go. Leaving her family and home, Eilis sets off to forge a new life for herself in Brooklyn

The Outlander- Gil Adamson

On a moonlit night in 1903, a mysterious young woman flees alone across the Canadian wilderness, one quick step ahead of her pursuers. Mary Boulton is nineteen years old, half mad, and widowed - by her own hand.

Through Black Spruce- Joseph Boyden

Fifteen years after the death of their patriarch Xavier, the Bird Clan finds itself struggling to survive on the hardscrabble reservation they call home. On Christmas Day, the youngest of the clan, a beautiful young woman called Suzanne leaves by snowmobile

Go with Me- Castle Freeman

Somewhere in backwoods Vermont, a young woman refuses to back down in the face of threats from a violent local villain. Her boyfriend has fled the state in fear, and local law enforcement can do nothing to protect her. And so she resolves not only to stand her ground, but also to fight back.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle- David Wroblewski

On a farm in remote northern Wisconsin the mute and brilliant Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents Gar and Trudy. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomised by Almodine, Edgar's lifelong companion

Burnt Out Town of Miracles-Roy Jacobsen

Set in Finland in 1939, The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles is the story of one man who remains in his home town when everyone else has fled, burning down their houses in their wake, before the invading Russians arrive. Timo remains behind because he can't imagine life anywhere else, doing anything else besides felling the trees near his home.

Death & Nightingales- Eugene McCabe

It is 1883, and all Ireland's in turmoil with agrarian, political and sectarian revolt. From the opening of this pastoral of love and betrayal, events roll towards an inevitable, tragic end

That they may face the rising sun- John McGahern

Joe and Kate Ruttledge, have come to rural Ireland from London in search of a different life. In passages of beauty and truth, the drama of a year in their lives and those of the memorable characters that move about them unfolds through action, the rituals of work, religious observances and play.

The Sea & the Silence- Peter Cunningham

It tells the story of Iz, a young woman trapped in an unhappy, adulterous marriage, and how she is haunted by a great love in her past.

The Secret Scipture- Sebastian Barry

Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, Roseanne McNulty faces an uncertain future, as the Roscommon Regional Mental hospital where she's spent the best part of her adult life prepares for closure. Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks often with her psychiatrist Dr. Grene

John the Revelator- Peter Murphy

John Devine yearns for escape. Stuck in a small town, he's worried over by his chain-smoking, bible-quoting single mother Lily and the sinister Mrs Nagle. So when Jamey Corboy, a self-styled boy-wonder, arrives in town, John's life suddenly fills with possibilities.

John- Niall Williams

What invisible drama plays, what passes to and fro in the columns of air above them, none knows, but the disciples think: perhaps the time is arrived at last. Aged, blind and perilously frail, John the Apostle has walked ten thousand miles to tell of love. In a hundred years he has lived to witness sights and scenes that now cloud his mind.

Leaving Ardglass- William King

In 1962 MJ, an Irish building contractor in London, brings over his kid brother Tom Galvin to join the family business. Educated, sensitive and naive, and destined for the seminary, Tom witnesses a killing, learns about dead men and the start in Camden Town

The House of Special Purpose- John Boyne

In Russia during the year 1915, at the age of 16, Georgy Jachmenev steps in front of an assassin's bullet intended for the heart of a senior member of the Russian Imperial Family. He is instantly proclaimed a hero.

Molly Fox’s Birthday- Deirdre Madden

Dublin, Midsummer: While absent in New York, the celebrated actor Molly Fox has loaned her house to a playwright friend, who is struggling to write a new work.

Dark Times in the City- Gene Kerrigan

Danny Callaghan is having a quiet drink in a Dublin pub when two men with guns walk in. They're here to take care of a minor problem - petty criminal Walter Bennett. On impulse, Callaghan intervenes to save Walter's life.

Scarecrow- Michael Connelly

Jack McEvoy is at the end of the line as a crime reporter. Forced to take a buy-out from the LA Times, he's got 30 days left on the job. His last assignment? Training his replacement, a low-cost reporter just out of J-school.

Too Close to Home-Linwood Barclay

When the Cutter family's next-door-neighbours, the Langleys, are gunned down in their house one hot August night, the Cutters' world is turned upside down. That violent death should have come so close to them is shocking enough in suburban Promise Falls.

Identity- G.M. Ford

They took his name. They took his memories. Now they want his life ...Paul Hardy has lived in a care home for the past seven years with no memory of who he is or where he came from

Long Lost- Harlan Coben

He's had no contact with her since, so her call catches him off guard. She's in Paris, she says, in trouble and only Myron can help. Terese tells him a sad story she's never before revealed: a good marriage, her struggles to get pregnant, the happiest moment of her life when her only child was born, the day everything she'd ever loved was taken from her.

Child 44- Tom Rob Smith

In Stalin's Soviet Union, crime does not exist. But still millions live in fear. The mere suspicion of disloyalty to the State, the wrong word at the wrong time, can send an innocent person to his execution.

Chasing Darkness- Robert Crais

It is fire season, and the hills of Los Angeles are burning. As the Police and Fire Departments evacuate the inhabitants, they find something no one expected: the days-old corpse of a middle-aged recluse who apparently committed suicide with pictures of seven dead women in his hand.

The Finder-Colin Harrison

Jin Li, the beautiful young manager of a Manhattan office-cleaning firm, is on the run. She has been 'disposing' of valuable information from top corporations, and now the people she has stolen from are desperate for revenge

The Power of the Dog- Don Winslow

how the US government and some of its quasi-autonomous agencies (CIA, FBI, DEA) all for their own reasons encouraged, sponsored and actively financed and helped the development of the drug cartels and their trade in Mexico.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo- Stieg Larsson

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder - and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family.

Gone Tommorrow- Lee Child

Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of tell-tale signs. Mostly because they're nervous.By definition they're all first-timers. Riding the subway in New York at two o'clock in the morning, Reacher knows the twelve giveaway signs to look out for.