We’ve independently selected our pick of the best fiction titles – from Margaret Atwood to Carlos Ruiz Zafon, there’s something here for everyone! Use the dropdown menu above to refine by fiction genre or click the category links under any product to narrow down your choices! And remember – we offer Free Postage in ROI on orders over €30 – just choose the Free Postage option at checkout.
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50% OFF SALE TITLE – WAS €16.95, NOW €8.45. Being Tommy's mother is too much for Sonya. Too much love, too much fear, too much longing for the cool wine she gulps from the bottle each night. Because Sonya is burning the fish fingers, and driving too fast, and swimming too far from the shore, and Tommy's life is in her hands. Once there was the thrill of a London stage, a glowing acting career, fast cars, handsome men. But now there are blackouts and bare cupboards, and her estranged father showing up uninvited. There is Mrs O'Malley spying from across the road. There is the risk of losing Tommy - forever. 'I lived every scene as I read' Donal Ryan. ISBN 9781526624475 -
*50% OFF SALE TITLE - WAS €18.10, NOW €9.05* In 1979 Bridget Doyle has one goal left in life: for her family to produce the very first Irish pope. Fired up by John Paul II's appearance in Phoenix Park, she sprinkles Papal-blessed holy water on the marital bed of her son and daughter-in-law, and leaves them to get on with things. But nine months later her daughter-in-law dies in childbirth and Granny Doyle is left bringing up four grandchildren: five-year-old Peg, and baby triplets Damien, Rosie and John Paul. Thirty years later, it seems unlikely any of Granny Doyle's grandchildren are going to fulfil her hopes. Damien is trying to work up the courage to tell her that he's gay. Rosie is a dreamy blue-haired rebel who wants to save the planet and has little time for popes. And irrepressible John Paul is a chancer and a charmer and the undisputed apple of his Granny's eye - but he's not exactly what you'd call Pontiff material. None of the triplets have much contact with their big sister Peg, who lives over 3,000 miles away in New York City, and has been a forbidden topic of conversation ever since she ran away from home as a teenager. But that's about to change. Signed 1st Edition Hardback. Includes '1' in numerical sequence on title page. ISBN 9780008295394 -
*50% OFF SALE TITLE – WAS €20.50, NOW €10.25.* A New Signed 1st Edition Hardback of Grace's Day by William Wall. Signed during an author visit to the Gutter Bookshop. Grace and her mother and sisters live on an island off the west coast of Ireland. Their father is a successful writer of travel books that advocate a simpler way of life, though he is so seldom there that his family become the subjects of his social experiments and his children's freedom is indistinguishable from poverty. Grace and Jeannie take turns to look after their little sister Emily. Then one day - Grace's day - a terrible tragedy occurs that changes everything. This is novel about a world of adult self-indulgence and the consequences of careless decisions and dishonest compromises. An Irish Independent Book of the Year. 'As the great John McGahern used to say, there's verse, and there's prose, and then there's poetry; William Wall is a poet in both mediums' John Banville. 'An underrated veteran at the peak of his powers' Sunday Times. ISBN 9781788545471 -
50% OFF SALE - WAS €16.80, NOW €8.40. SIGNED 1ST EDITION HARDBACK A New Signed 1st Edition 1st Printing Hardback with 1 included on the title page number line - signed by the author on publication in March 2020. A cracker' Patrick McCabe - 'An irresistible comedy' Luke Kennard Laura Cassidy is going all the way. Hollywood. Starry lights. The Walk of Fame. It's her destiny. At least, that's what her movie-obsessed father used to tell her. That was always the plan. Sure, it's been a bit slow-going, but the stars have finally aligned. The long-awaited new theatre is about to open, and their first production calls for a particularly fiery female lead. This part has Laura's name on it. There's her meddlesome older sister to get past - freshly returned from saving the world. Her occasional lover and stand-in leading man seems to think it's all a waste of time. And probably best not to mention the audition to her mother, especially after what happened last time . . . Laura just has to stay one step ahead of them all. Channelling the era of Hollywood's silver screen and told in a voice that blends devil humour, quiet mayhem, and a singled-minded optimism that might just lead to disaster, Laura Cassidy's Walk of Fame tells the story of a troubled soul desperate to find her place in life. ISBN 9781509829880 -
*50% OFF SALE TITLE - WAS €19.00, NOW €9.50* A New Signed 1st Edition Hardback of 'Restless Souls' by Dan Sheehan. Signed during an author visit to the Gutter Bookshop. Tom, Karl and Baz grew up together in down-on-its-luck Dublin. Friends since childhood, their lives diverged when Tom left home to be a war correspondent. Now, after three years embedded in the Siege of Sarajevo, he returns a haunted shell of the lad who went away. Karl and Baz have no idea what they're doing but they are determined to see him through the darkness, even if it means travelling halfway around the world. Hearing about an unlikely cure - an experimental clinic called Restless Souls - they embark on a road trip across California. But as they try to save Tom from his memories, they must confront their own - of what happened to their childhood friend Gabriel. And in doing so, they must ask how their boisterous teenage souls became weighed down, and why life got so damn complicated and sad. 'It never stops being a page-turner...a great debut' Colum McCann' ISBN 9781474605854 -
*50% OFF SALE TITLE – WAS €22.50, NOW €11.25.* SIGNED 1ST EDITION HARDBACK A New Signed 1st Edition 1st Printing Hardback with '1' on the title page - signed by the author for The Gutter Bookshop on publication in April 2019. A startling and gripping novel, Suzy, Suzy follows a teenage girl trying to understand the chaos of her family life. Suzy lives in a dysfunctional household. She can't stand her mother; her father is keeping secrets; and her brother only seems to egg on their parents' erratic and unpredictable behaviour. Alongside her friends, Suzy finds herself drawn into the downward spiral of her parents' relationship, and as a result is drawn into the centre of a mystery surrounding a murder. Forced to make impossible choices, Suzy must navigate the increasingly disturbing antics of her family and the oddities of the mystery she finds herself involved in, while also trying to survive the horrors of secondary school. Narrated by a troubled young woman, the novel weaves a tale of secrets, lies and betrayal in the pressure cooker of her formative years. William Wall is an underrated Irish master with a powerful, distinctive writing style, and an uncanny ability to create astonishingly complex and well-realised female protagonists. ISBN 9781788545501 -
*50% OFF SALE TITLE – WAS €20.00, NOW €10.00.* A New Signed 1st Edition Hardback of The Black Snow by Paul Lynch. Signed during an author visit to the Gutter Bookshop. In the spring of 1945, farm-worker Matthew Peoples runs into a burning byre and does not come out alive. The farm's owner, Barnabas Kane, can only look on as his friend dies and all 43 of his cattle are destroyed in the blaze. Following the disaster, the bull-headed and proudly self-sufficient Barnabas is forced to reach out to the farming community for assistance. But resentment simmers over Matthew Peoples' death, and Barnabas and his family begin to believe their efforts at recovery are being sabotaged. Barnabas is determined to hold firm. Yet his son Billy struggles under the weight of a terrible secret, and his wife Eskra is suffocated by the uncertainty surrounding their future. And as Barnabas fights ever harder for what is rightfully his, his loved ones are drawn ever closer to a fate that should never have been theirs. In The Black Snow, Paul Lynch takes the pastoral novel and - with the calmest of hands - tears it apart. With beautiful, haunting prose, Lynch illuminates what it means to be alive during crisis, and puts to the test our deepest certainties about humankind. ISBN 9781782062042 -
50% OFF SALE TITLE – WAS €19.00, NOW €9.50 A New Signed 1st Edition Hardback of 'The Rules of Revelation' by Lisa McInerney. Signed on a special illustrated insert page especially for The Gutter Bookshop. Ireland. Great nationalists, bad mothers and a whole lot of secrets. Ryan Cusack is ready to deliver its soundtrack. Former sex-worker Georgie wants the truth about Ryan's past out there but the journalist has her own agenda. Mel returns from Brexit Britain, ill-equipped to deal with the resurgence of a family scandal. Karine has always been sure of herself, till a terrible secret tugs the rug from under her. Maureen has got wind that things are changing, and if anyone's telling the story she wants to make sure it's her. A riotous blast of sex, scandal, obsession, love, feminism, gender, music, class and transgression from an author with tremendous, singular talent. ISBN 9781473668904 -
*50% OFF SALE TITLE – WAS €18.95, NOW €9.45* Signed exclusively for The Gutter Bookshop by Tana on publication in November 2020. Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a remote Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force, and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But then a local kid comes looking for his help. His brother has gone missing, and no one, least of all the police, seems to care. Cal wants nothing to do with any kind of investigation, but somehow he can't make himself walk away. Soon Cal will discover that even in the most idyllic small town, secrets lie hidden, people aren't always what they seem, and trouble can come calling at his door. Our greatest living mystery writer weaves a masterful tale of breath-taking beauty and suspense, asking how we decide what's right and wrong in a world where neither is simple, and what we risk if we fail. 'One of the most compulsive psychological mysteries since Donna Tartt's The Secret History' THE TIMES ISBN 9780241459409 -
50% OFF SALE - WAS €22.00, NOW €11.00. A captivating story bound to leave you breathless from internationally acclaimed author Jose Ignacio Valenzuela. When Angela receives an eerie text message from her estranged, best-friend Patricia, her heart stops. Something is off and Angela knows it. She quickly embarks on a biting quest to Almahue, a small town in the Chilean Patagonia, which, according to the Malamor Legend, is cursed to live without love or face death. Deception and mystery unfold, as true love leaves Angela defying the legend she once brushed off and fighting alongside the entire town for their own lives. The first book in a trilogy you won't be able to put down. ISBN 9780997290431 -
In the first minute following her death, Tequila Leila's consciousness began to ebb, slowly and steadily, like a tide receding from the shore. Her brain cells, having run out of blood, were now completely deprived of oxygen. But they did not shut down. Not right away... For Leila, each minute after her death brings a sensuous memory: the taste of spiced goat stew, sacrificed by her father to celebrate the long-awaited birth of a son; the sight of bubbling vats of lemon and sugar which the women use to wax their legs while the men attend mosque; the scent of cardamom coffee that Leila shares with a handsome student in the brothel where she works. Each memory, too, recalls the friends she made at each key moment in her life - friends who are now desperately trying to find her. ISBN 9780241979464 -
The year is 1794. A young nobleman, Eric Three Roses, languishes in hospital. Some think he would be just at home in the madhouse across the road. Ridden with guilt, he spends his nights writing down memories of his lost love who died on their wedding night. Her mother also mourns her and when no one listens to her suspicions, she begs the aid of the only person who will listen: Jean Mickel Cardell, the one-armed watchman. Cecil Winge is six months in the ground but when his younger brother Emil seeks out the watchman to retrieve his brother's missing pocket watch, Cardell enlists his help to discover what really happened at Three Roses' estate that night. But, unlike his dead brother, the younger Winge is an enigma, and Cardell soon realises that he may be more hindrance than help. And when they discover that a mysterious slave trader has been running Three Roses' affairs, it is a race against time to discover the truth before it's too late. In 1794, the second installment of Niklas Natt och Dag's historical noir trilogy, we are reunited with Mickel Cardell, Anna Stina Knapp, and the bustling world of late eighteenth century Stockholm from The Wolf and the Watchman. The city is about to see its darkest days yet as veneers crack and the splendour of old gives way to what is hiding in the city's nooks and crannies. ISBN 9781529304633 -
1979. It is the winter of discontent and ambitious young journalist Allie Burns is on the hunt for the story that will change her career. The only woman working the Glasgow newsdesk, she needs a ground-breaking scoop for the boy's club take her seriously. But the stakes are raised higher than Allie could ever have imagined when her journalism partner, Danny, is found murdered in his flat. Together they have been investigating stories that nobody wants exposed, and in doing so they have made some powerful enemies. As she embarks on her quest for the truth and justice for Danny, Allie is forced to tread carefully. After all, she is a woman in a man's world and - with her greatest ally dead - nobody can be trusted. This is the atmospheric, heart-pounding first novel in a gripping new series by the Queen of Crime Val McDermid. ISBN 9780751583076 -
Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. When Winston finds love with Julia, he discovers that life does not have to be dull and deadening, and awakens to new possibilities. Despite the police helicopters that hover and circle overhead, Winston and Julia begin to question the Party; they are drawn towards conspiracy. Yet Big Brother will not tolerate dissent - even in the mind. For those with original thoughts they invented Room 101... 1984 is George Orwell's terrifying vision of a totalitarian future in which everything and everyone is slave to a tyrannical regime. 'Right up there among my favourite books ... I read it again and again' Margaret Atwood. ISBN 9780141036144 -
1989. The world is on the brink of revolution and journalist Allie Burns is a woman on a mission. When she discovers a lead about the exploitation of society's most vulnerable, Allie is determined to investigate and give voice to the silenced. Elsewhere, a ticking clock begins the countdown to a murder. As Allie begins to connect the dots and edges closer to exposing the truth, it is more shocking than she ever imagined. There's nothing like a killer story, and to tell it, Allie must risk her freedom and her life. ISBN 9780751583137 -
When first-year music student Amalia stumbles into her Oxford college bar, she has no idea that everything is about to change. Seated across from her is Alex, a velvety-voiced fellow Australian with eyes the colour of her native sky. They strike up a friendship that is immediate - its intensity both thrilling and terrifying. As the days and weeks go by, they spend more and more time together: philosophising, hypothesising, questioning everything. There is nothing they cannot talk about, except the one thing that matters most. Dare they risk a romantic entanglement if it threatens this most perfect of friendships? Set across four years and five cities, and suffused with music, literature, art, dance, sex, and the exquisite pain and pleasure of first love, 28 Questions is a passionate and unforgettable first novel about love in all its guises, growing up, and figuring out who you are along the way. 'Funny, clever, sad without self-pity, and with an uplift that is the writing itself' Jeanette Winterson ISBN 9781398501126 -
Their secret love affair has lasted for decades - but will it last one more summer? For the last twenty-eight summers, Mallory and Jake have met to rekindle the passionate love affair they began all those years ago. Each married to someone else, with busy lives and happy families, they've managed to keep their secret, and to keep their love alive. But nothing is forever and when Mallory receives a diagnosis that puts her future in doubt, they must face the possibility that their twenty-eighth summer together also be their last. ISBN 9781529374803 -
On March 3rd, 1947, Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the only child of Rose and Stanley Ferguson, is born. From that single beginning, Ferguson's life will take four simultaneous but entirely different paths. Family fortunes diverge. Loves and friendships and passions contrast. Each version of Ferguson's story rushes across the fractured terrain of mid-twentieth century America, in this sweeping story of birthright and possibility, of love and the fullness of life itself. SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017 'Remarkable. A novel that contains multitudes.' New York Times 'A vast portrait of the turbulent mid-20th century, wonderfully, vividly conveyed.' New Statesman ISBN 9780571324651