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The Spinning Heart

byDonal Ryan

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THE STUNNING FIRST NOVEL BY THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF HEART BE AT PEACE AND STRANGE FLOWERS
  • Winner of the Guardian First Book Award
  • Shortlisted for the Dublin IMPAC Literary Award
  • Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize
  • Winner of Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards
  • Winner of the European Prize for Literature
  • Voted Irish Book of the Decade in 2016

“My father still lives back the road past the weir in the cottage I was reared in. I go there every day to see is he dead and every day he lets me down. He hasn’t yet missed a day of letting me down.”

Now winner of six Irish Book Awards and a No.1 bestselling author, Donal Ryan exploded on to the literary scene with his stunning debut, set in the aftermath of Ireland’s financial collapse. When dangerous tensions surface in a small Irish town, the characters face a battle between their public persona and inner desires. Told through a chorus of twenty-one unique voices, each struggling to tell their own kind of truth, a single authentic tale unfolds.

The Spinning Heart speaks for contemporary Ireland like no other novel. Wry, vulnerable, all-too human, it captures the language and spirit of rural Ireland and, with uncanny perception, articulates the words and thoughts of a generation.

DISCOVER DONAL RYAN'S NEW NOVEL, HEART BE AT PEACE, WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR FICTION AND IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR

****

'Filled with light and shade, love and tragedy ... if it was a song you could sing it' ANNE ENRIGHT

'Donal Ryan is the real deal ... a brilliantly realised, utterly resonant state-of-the-nation landscape' SUNDAY INDEPENDENT

'I can't imagine a more original, more perceptive or more passionate work than this. Outstanding' JOHN BOYNE

'It's furious, it's moving, it's darkly funny, it punches you right in the gut' NEW YORK TIMES

'Funny, moving and beautifully written' EDNA O'BRIEN

'The unambiguous announcement of a genuine and apparently fully-formed new talent' FINANCIAL TIMES

There’s a powerful sense of place and shared history binding Ryan’s many voices, their inner and outer selves, distilling a linguistic richness comparable to Under Milk Wood. . . . the testimony of his characters rings rich and true – funny and poignant and banal and extraordinary – and we can’t help but listen.

The Guardian

About Donal Ryan

Donal Ryan, from Nenagh, County Tipperary, has published seven number one bestselling novels and a short story collection. He has won several awards for his fiction, including the European Union Prize for Literature, the Guardian First Book Award and six Irish Book Awards, and has been shortlisted for several more, including the Costa Book Award and the Dublin International Literary Award. He was nominated for the Booker Prize in 2013 for his debut novel, The Spinning Heart, and again in 2018, for his fourth novel, From A Low and Quiet Sea. The Spinning Heart was voted Irish Book of the Decade in 2016. In 2021 Donal became the first Irish writer to be awarded the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature. His most recent novel, Heart Be at Peace, won both Novel of the Year and Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, and was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Nero Book Awards. His work has been adapted for stage and screen and translated into over twenty languages. Donal has lectured in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick since 2014 and lives in Castletroy with his wife Anne Marie and their two children.
Details
  • Imprint: Black Swan Ireland
  • ISBN: 9781784165000
  • Length: 160 pages
  • Dimensions: 198mm x 11mm x 129mm
  • Weight: 119g
  • Price: £9.99
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