The Spinning Heart

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 *
[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. * The Sunday Times *
Donal 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. * The Irish Times *
Funny, moving and beautifully written
Donal Ryan is the real deal … A brilliantly realised, utterly resonant state-of-the-nation landscape * Sunday Independent *
Filled with light and shade, love and tragedy … if it was a song you could sing it
A formidable debut, with snatches of the savage comedy of Patrick McCabe and a wistful cadence all its own. * Daily Telegraph *
Powerful and affecting … [a] superb, unforgettable and topical debut. * The Times *
Funny, 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. * Financial Times *
I 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.

Donal Ryan, from Nenagh, County Tipperary, is the author of seven number one bestselling novels and a short story collection. His fiction has garnered numerous accolades, including the European Union Prize for Literature, the Guardian First Book Award, and six Irish Book Awards. He has also been shortlisted for several other prestigious awards, such as the Costa Book Award and the Dublin International Literary Award.

In 2013, Ryan was nominated for the Booker Prize for his debut novel, The Spinning Heart, and received a second nomination in 2018 for his fourth novel, From A Low and Quiet Sea. In 2016, The Spinning Heart was celebrated as the Irish Book of the Decade. In 2021, Donal Ryan became the first Irish writer to receive the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature.

His most recent novel, Heart Be at Peace, achieved critical acclaim by winning both Novel of the Year and Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, and was also shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Nero Book Awards. Ryan’s works have been adapted for both stage and screen, and have been translated into over twenty languages.

Since 2014, Donal Ryan has been a lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. He resides in Castletroy with his wife, Anne Marie, and their two children.

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