The Spinning Heart
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Description
This is the winner of the Guardian First Book Award 2013. It is longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2013. It is the winner of Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards 2012. "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." In the aftermath of Ireland's financial collapse, dangerous tensions surface in an Irish town. As violence flares, the characters face a battle between public persona and inner desires. Through a chorus of 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. Technically daring and evocative of Patrick McCabe and J.M. Synge, this novel of small-town life is witty, dark and sweetly poignant. Donal Ryan's brilliantly realized debut announces a stunning new voice in literary fiction.
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Product details
- Hardback | 160 pages
- 143 x 221 x 19mm | 280g
- 27 Jun 2013
- Transworld Publishers Ireland Ltd
- Doubleday Ireland
- Dublin, Ireland
- English
- 1781620067
- 9781781620069
- 148,903
Flap copy
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 hasnt yet missed a day of letting me down.
In the aftermath of Irelands financial collapse, dangerous tensions surface in an Irish town. As violence flares, the characters face a battle between public persona and inner desires. Through a chorus of 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. Technically daring and evocative of Patrick McCabe and J.M. Synge, this novel of small-town life is witty, dark and sweetly poignant.
Donal Ryans brilliantly realized debut announces a stunning new voice in literary fiction
show more
In the aftermath of Irelands financial collapse, dangerous tensions surface in an Irish town. As violence flares, the characters face a battle between public persona and inner desires. Through a chorus of 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. Technically daring and evocative of Patrick McCabe and J.M. Synge, this novel of small-town life is witty, dark and sweetly poignant.
Donal Ryans brilliantly realized debut announces a stunning new voice in literary fiction
show more
Review Text
a first novel that's
up-to-date in its concerns but that also transcends the merely topical in its bleak, if often savagely funny, vision of a rural Ireland
There are echoes
of Patrick McCabe's stray sod country, though Tipperary-born Donal Ryan has an imaginative insight into his characters that's all his own and a furious energy to his prose that gives arrestingly vivid life to these blighted souls.
a darkly persuasive debut.
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Review quote
"Funny, moving and beautifully written" -- Edna O'Brien "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... Ryan's novel ... seems to draw speech out of the deepest silences; 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 "Powerful and affecting ... [a] superb, unforgettable and topical debut." The Times "Humane, funny, moving and relevant, this is extremely impressive stuff." Daily Mail "A formidable debut, with snatches of the savage comedy of Patrick McCabe and a wistful cadence all its own." Daily Telegraph
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About Donal Ryan
Donal Ryan is from Nenagh in County Tipperary. The Spinning Heart, his debut novel, was published to major acclaim; it won the Guardian First Book Award in 2013 and the Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards in 2012, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2013. His second novel, The Thing About December, is published by Doubleday Ireland. Donal lives with his wife Anne Marie and their two children just outside Limerick City.
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Our customer reviews
I absolutely adored this book! for a more detailed review go to www.lishreviewsbooks.blogspot.com !show more
by Eilís
