Ghosts of Fourth Street: My Family, A Death, and the Hills of Duluth by Laurie Hertzel (University of Minnesota Press, $20)Literary critic Hertzel’s memoir of growing up in the 1960s American Midwest with nine siblings is far from cozy. “There just wasn’t enough love to go around,” comments her father, a charismatic tyrant whom his children call “Guv.” Framed by the death of Hertzel’s brother Billy when he was 18 and she was eight, the story adheres to the perspective of a child grasping at rare crumbs of tenderness, such as when Guv tucks her into bed. “You do not get hugged much, you are never told that you are loved, but in those slow careful steps, that gentle settling into the covers, you think you feel it.” Although the addition of occasional adult hindsight might have given this tale more weight, Ghosts is most remarkable as a depiction of a young reader who – bereft of companionship – uses books to comprehend the sorrows around her. Mei ChinIt’s The Devil Himself: A True Story by Kevin Sharkey (Sharkey Publishing, €16.99)How can a place feel like home and hell on Earth at the same time? Artist Kevin Sharkey searches the past for answers, examining his childhood as “the only” black person in 1960s Donegal. At times overextended, but often with striking emotional precision, Sharkey’s writing lays bare the abuse inflicted by his adoptive parents and the prejudice of a community that refused to accept him. In doing so, he asks readers to “find some understanding of peace and forgiveness” – an unlikely prospect at the outset. [ ‘I make myself small and stay quiet’: Experiences of racism in IrelandOpens in new window ]Yet Sharkey’s excavation of memory resists easy moral certainties. Intertwined with cruelty are moments of familial affection, neighbourly warmth and the enchantment of rural Ireland. The result is a memoir of impressive depth, a meditation on the incongruity of life. Ferdia RocheThe Wrong Son: A Memoir by Neil Griffiths (Weatherglass Books, £12.99)Neil Griffiths is born to a father who has lost his entire family in a car crash, and a mother who abandons her husband and young daughter for a man she blindly worships. The Wrong Son feels like a fascinating late-night conversation with a stranger. From childhood, Griffiths’s aloof behaviour antagonises his parents and teachers, but makes him popular with friends and girls. Efforts to quash his eccentricities drive him towards an unmoored, deeply creative lifestyle. The writing is blunt and observational, resulting in a surprisingly humorous story covering six decades. It is a compelling exposition and analysis of Griffiths’s struggle with a vortex of thoughts and their effect, particularly on the women in his life. Moments of unadulterated, fleeting joy are beautifully and memorably captured. Interwoven with worthy ties to literary and psychoanalytic giants including Proust and Freud, the inherently miserable premise yields a genuine page turner. Céire Sadlier