Sarah Jessica Parker’s Summer Reading List

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy follows Cushla, a woman from a small town near Belfast who teaches at a parochial school and helps out at her family’s pub. At the pub one night, she meets Michael Agnew, a Protestant barrister, and, against her better judgment, an affair between them ignites. 

Close to Home by Michael Magee might have a disturbing start, but the overall story is worth it. The novel follows Sean, a young man who grew up in West Belfast and just returned to his hometown after the country’s thirty-year conflict only to find out it’s all the same. As he begins to come to terms with the reality, he assaults a stranger at a party. “Close to Home begins with this sudden act of violence and expands into a startling portrait of working-class Ireland under the long shadow of the Troubles,” the description reads. 

After finding their dream home right on the coast, Gabe and Pippa Gerard, the main characters in Sally Hepworth’s The Soulmate: A Novel, discover that their small town’s cliffs hold a dark secret: it’s a popular spot for people to end their lives. Since finding out, Gabe tries to save as many people as he can until, one day, he fails. “When Pippa discovers Gabe knew the victim, the questions spiral…Did the victim jump? Was she pushed? And would Gabe, the love of Pippa’s life, her soulmate…lie?” the description reads.

Small Worlds marks the long-awaited novel by writer Caleb Azumah Nelson. The book follows Stephen, a first-generation Londoner born to Ghanaian immigrant parents who struggles to go against societal pressures of going to college and leaving his parents’ home. When he decides to go against it all and follow his first love, however, his world begins to crumble. 

Following a terrorist attack in Tokyo, former Army intelligence officer Dan Reilly becomes determined to find out who and why they did it. “Through his connections, he learns that the Tokyo bomber is not acting alone,” reads the description of the Red Hotel: A Thriller by Gary Grossman & Ed Fuller. “But the organization behind the perpetrator is not who they expect.”

Lone Women: A Novel by Victor Lavalle follows Adelaide Henry, a woman who carries a locked steamer trunk with her wherever she goes because when it opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear. After fleeing to Montana, she then becomes one of the “lone women,” aka a woman who’s taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can tame it. “The secret she’s tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing that will help her survive the harsh territory,” the description reads.

No Ordinary Assignment, by journalist Jane Ferguson, is the only memoir in Parker’s list. The book tells the story of Ferguson, a Northern Ireland-born journalist who powered through her chaotic upbringing and became a world-renowned war correspondent. “With an open-hearted humanity, we rarely see in conflict stories, No Ordinary Assignment shows what it means to build an authentic career against the odds,” the description reads. 

The Anniversary: A Novel by Stephanie Bishop follows novelist J.B. and her husband Patrick as they set sail on a cruise to celebrate their wedding anniversary. One night, a storm hits and Patrick falls from the ship. In the moments that follow, the cracks in their relationship begin to show. 

If you’re a fan of Netflix’s Black Mirror, then The Centre: A Novel by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi is the book for you. The novel follows Anisa, a young woman who hopes to become a translator of  “great works of literature.” One day, after some insisting, her boyfriend Adam finally reveals his secret to learning so many languages: The Centre, an elite, invite-only program that guarantees complete fluency in any language, in just ten days. Interested in the concept, Anisa joins The Centre and the reality is much different than she expected.