River East, River West takes the form of two parallel narratives, as two characters experience contrasting moments in the recent history of China. The more autobiographical section, set initially in 2007 (shortly before the Financial Crisis), introduces us to 14-year-old Alva, the daughter of American expat and failed actress Sloan, as she navigates being a ‘laowai’ in a Chinese high school and looks on enviously at those attending American expat schools nearby.

The Bee Sting is something of an epic at 600+ pages, focusing on a fairly affluent family in small-town Ireland, in the aftermath of the 2008 Financial Crash. It's a novel of perspectives, with its lengthy first four sections each seen through the eyes of a different family member.

A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing is a stream-of-consciousness novel, told from the perspective of an unnamed Irish girl in highly distinctive, fractured prose.  It’s largely addressed to her brother, also unnamed and referred to as ‘you’ throughout. His life is limited by the impact of brain damage from the removal of a childhood trauma, but the love between the two siblings is evident throughout, in a novel that doesn’t offer much else in the way of solace. 

Vernon God Little is the story of Vernon Gregory Little, a teenager in smalltown Texas whose life is turned upside down when his best friend is responsible for a massacre at his high school. Although Vernon was absent for the event in question, running an errand for his teacher, he ends up being pinned with blame for the atrocity, accused of being an accessory and eventually perpetrator of the crime. He’s undone by a combination of outright self-serving treachery (from his mother’s romantic interest and all-round sleaze “Lally”), poor decision making from older relatives and friends (who encourage his repeated escapes from law and order) and herd mentality (where eventually everyone, including his own mother, comes to blame him, because the telly tells them to…)