- Imprint: Transworld Digital
- ISBN: 9781448154036
- Length: 160 pages
- Price: £0.99
The GuardianThere’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 Sunday Times[A] beguiling debut. … This may be the work of a debut novelist, but it is one who reads plenty and knows his business. … His salty, damaged characters give voice to the anger and heartache of a town snared by Ireland’s collapse. For this, we are in his debt.
Eileen Battersby, The Irish TimesDonal Ryan’s prism of life and lives is compellingly humane. … This is an exciting, relevant and believable contemporary novel about the lost and the wounded that listens to the present without discarding either the sins of the fathers or the literary legacy of the past.
Edna O'BrienFunny, moving and beautifully written
Sunday IndependentDonal Ryan is the real deal … A brilliantly realised, utterly resonant state-of-the-nation landscape
Anne EnrightFilled with light and shade, love and tragedy ... if it was a song you could sing it
Daily TelegraphA formidable debut, with snatches of the savage comedy of Patrick McCabe and a wistful cadence all its own.
The TimesPowerful and affecting . . . [a] superb, unforgettable and topical debut.
Financial TimesFunny, moving, technically inventive … Structurally the novel gestures to William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, while Ryan’s sensitive observations on Irish life seem responsive to the work of his compatriot Patrick McCabe. That Ryan does not look out of place in such literary company is a measure of his achievement.
John BoyneI was hugely impressed by The Spinning Heart. There will be many novels which explore the effect of the crash on the people of Ireland but I can't imagine a more original, more perceptive or more passionate work than this. Outstanding.
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
All editions
- Paperback 2019
- Ebook 2012
- Audio Download 2024