The Spinning Heart

Winner of the Irish Book Award
Finalist for the Booker Prize

This "affecting" debut is "reminiscent of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying" as it paints a vivid portrait of a working-class community in contemporary rural Ireland (New York Times Book Review).

"One of my favorite Irish books . . . Moving, atmospheric and beautiful." --Tana French

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 fiction.

Irish Book of the Decade (Dublin Book Festival)
First Book Award (The Guardian)
"Newcomer of the Year" and "Book of the Year" (Irish Book Award)
"Best Book of the Year" (Library Journal)


About the Author
Donal Ryan, from Nenagh in County Tipperary, is a recipient of the 2015 European Union Prize for Literature. His first novel, The Spinning Heart, was published to major acclaim. It won the Guardian First Book Award and the Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards; it was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award; and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize. His second novel, The Thing About December, was a finalist for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year and Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. Donal lives with his wife Anne Marie and their two children just outside Limerick City.