‘Rooney is brilliant’: Sally Rooney, Danzy Senna and Dawn O’Porter feature in our best

FROM the author of 2018’s best-selling Normal People, which was turned into a smash hit TV series, this is a highly anticipated fourth novel.

It’s another deep dive into human connection, starring two brothers who have more differences than similarities. 

Peter is a successful, confident, 32-year-old lawyer; Ivan is ten years younger, more awkward and a champion chess player.

When their father dies, Peter’s previously unassailable grip on things deserts him and he flounders, unable to cope with his grief. 

Ivan meets an older woman not long after the funeral while playing in a chess tournament. He has no real experience of dating and she has recently escaped an abusive marriage, but their relationship quickly becomes all-consuming. 

Rooney is brilliant at describing romantic love and its many shades, as well as examining why people do the things they do. Wonderful.

 COLORED TELEVISION by Danzy Senna (Dialogue Books £22, 288pp) 

I LOVED this fresh, funny story about Jane, a biracial American writer who moves into television after her second novel is rejected. 

She spent a decade working on that book, which her artist husband calls ‘the mulatto War And Peace’, and it never occurred to her that people wouldn’t like it.

She’d pinned all her hopes on her opus being a success. With her dreams of financial stability dashed and her ego severely dented, Jane is determined to make writing for television the big break she so badly needs. 

She is a hilarious heroine, always making mistakes and telling lies, but I so wanted her to win.

The narrative races along, full of twists and turns, and excellent commentary on what it means to be mixed race.

 It’s hilarious and wise, clever and thought-provoking. A true page-turner.

HONEYBEE by Dawn O’Porter (Harper Collins £20, 384pp) 

RENEE and Flo were best friends growing up on Guernsey, but went their separate ways after a nasty argument.

Now 22, they return to the small island they call home and bump into each other straight away. 

Their relationship quickly ramps up to what it was before and they start living and working together.

The narrative alternates between Renee’s point of view and Flo’s, and I rooted for these appealing protagonists as their struggles were illuminated. 

Secrets always come out, of course, but the girls ultimately learn it’s the ones we try to keep from ourselves that cause the most pain.

It’s great on female friendship, struggling to find your place in the world and working out that what you want isn’t always what you need.