The parents of youths who rioted in Dundee overnight are “part of the problem”, the city’s council leader has said. These vignettes are so profoundly recognisable that questions of trustworthiness are shunted sideways.

When there are authors of the calibre of Claire Keegan, Kevin Barry, Eimear McBride, Sara Baume, Donal Ryan, Mike McCormack, Glen Paterson, Lisa McInerney, Anna Burns and more, there is the awful possibility that someone will say “renaissance” – which supposes there wasn’t Enright and Toibin and O’Brien and McCann before. Almost half of people who voted for the SNP at the last general election do not plan to back the party again, according to a. It’s a quote that wouldn’t be out of place in Claire Kilroy’s new novel Soldier Sailor, a provocative and intriguing book that lays bare the delights and demands of new motherhood.She’s describing, it seemed to me, not so much a person as the feeling of having had a partner and having lost that partnership; the shock of discovering her relationship is not what she thought it was.

When asked about the decision, she says that while uncomfortable, it was freeing once she developed the narrator's voice. It was small” – and the fraying of a marriage as the husband puts career before family – “I tore at my marriage rings until the knuckle cracked, but no joy.The prose throughout is admirable, images of the domestic made new and fresh, a reminder of the poetry of Eavan Boland. Short, glamorous routes, stylish interiors and a buzzing onboard nightlife are all part of Club Med’s mission to attract younger guests.

The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice.I’ll be adding Soldier Sailor to that list – it’s one of the best books I’ve read for capturing those wild motherhood feelings. By the time we got to the recession, and it became clear that a great trick had been pulled on the Irish people, I was very saddened. If Kilroy’s novel ended here, it would have done more than enough to locate her among the ranks of motherhood’s laureates alongside the likes of Helen Simpson, Rachel Cusk and Sarah Moss. The woman manning it leapt forward and grabbed it by the chains before it connected with your face, nearly dislodging her own child.

I am not a mother and yet I found the novel more and more interesting as it progressed and as the narrative, even if it IS about motherhood, allowed other thoughts to enter and be explored, the claustrophobia morphs into other states. We ran around yelling for five minutes before a kindly older man whispered: “I think he’s hiding in that wardrobe. This opening sequence is a punch to the gut: in the throes of postnatal crisis, she describes leaving her new baby swaddled on a cliff top while she sets out to take her own life, believing it’s best for him. One of the most enjoyable parts of the book is the friendship the narrator rekindles with an old college friend, a man who looks after his three small children while his wife, a doctor, goes to work. Militaristic images abound: she speaks of the potential for violence that motherhood ignites, the urge to kill (others, yourself) to protect your child.We see her becoming a mama bear who would kill anybody, including herself to protect this tiny human, we see her feeling the over whelming love that consumes and confuses new mothers!