Maybe because real life these days seems to be a mine field, filled with stress and anxiety, a book like this is a balm for the soul. I also defy even the most cynical of us not to break into a smile at the events of the last few chapters. But I think I should have stuck with my gut instinct because it turns out it really isn’t my kind of book. I know, I know, some of you are thinking that these guys are losers, but that's where you'd be wrong. His work – writing text for boilerplate encyclopedias marketed for children, which will be published under a better known author’s name – fills his day but offers limited satisfaction.

I suppose the message the book is trying to put across is that we're all different, and that a person deserves to be loved for who they are, rather than who they're expected to be. In particular, this novel is a welcome counterbalance to the usual focus of literature (one I also have a tendency to enforce in my reading) to the unpleasant. Aksi halde ebeveynlik girdabına kapılır ve karına ya da kocana öncelik vermeyi unutur, farkına bile varmadan kendini olabilecek en kötü durumda bulursun; evli, çocuklu ama son derece yalnız. The best friends who are in their 30’s get together and regularly play board games and without question discuss their lives and that of the world and how best to deal with the everyday questions.

Some time ago I went to a family function and I was approached by the new boyfriend of one of my relatives. These flashes of wit and poignancy make something exceptional out of what might easily have been humdrum, vindicating WH Auden’s assertion that the novelist must learn “how to be / One after whom none think it worth to turn”. As I type, the air conditioner is humming and my 15 ½-year-old dog Maya with chronic kidney disease is dozing in the chair behind me.

Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian View image in fullscreen An ‘evening of darts, dominoes, cards or other prison games’. Hungry Paul is pretty quiet, maybe not getting on with his life as others would like, but happy in his own skin. Hession’s novel is an ode to the joys of a quiet life, and to the importance of prioritising the little things.This book was one of their 2019 publications – and one which featured in so many 2019 book of the year lists by bloggers/reviewers whose opinions I rate that I had to read it. It was clear he was expecting me to confide in him about secret scandals, simmering resentments and falling outs between my family members. It is rare that I ‘get’ a book (usually it takes ten or so pages) when I read the first paragraph but it happened the second I cracked open Leonard and Hungry Paul. There’s not a lot of action, or many other characters, so it does allow you to spend time with the two mains and Hungry Paul's sister Grace, and is all the better for it.

It’s the loud, demanding ones that grab our attention, but it’s the many people like Leonard and Hungry Paul who steadfastly keep things moving.I really liked the sound of this book; a celebration of nice gentle introverted souls, two loyal friends, more familiar with the contents of an encyclopedia, than societal norms.

I’ll be honest: I had been avoiding this book partly because I thought the title sounded like a children’s book but largely because the book blurb made it sound like not my kind of book.Leonard has the chance of a relationship with a woman, and Hungry Paul has the chance to forge a career. Rónán Hession greift in seinem Debütroman Menschen und Charaktere auf, die in unserer hektischen Gesellschaft schnell untergehen und eher übersehen werden. There’s the love between a young couple about to get married but nervous they don’t feel the way they’re supposed to, and the fluttering, cautious excitement of a new romance. The rarity of such truthfulness in conversation and the skill with which thoughts and feelings are conveyed make this a singular read. I could also relate to both Leonard and Hungry Paul, having been in the same situation as them many times in my life.