Heart, Be at Peace
Winner of the Orwell Prize for Fiction 2025 and the Irish Book of the Year
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR
WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO NOVEL OF THE YEAR
SHORTLISTED FOR THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR
'Donal Ryan’s writing has earned him a place among the greatest names in Irish literature and this lyrical novel speaks to the very heart of modern Irish society.' Maria Dickenson, Chair of the IBA judges
'Beautiful...a book full of love and hope, more needed in these days than ever' Kit de Waal
'I am blown away by the ambition and scope of this exquisite piece of writing...sublime in both its sentiment and beauty' Rachel Joyce
Some things can send a heart spinning; others will crack it in two...
In a small town in rural Ireland, the local people have weathered the storms of economic collapse and are looking towards the future. The jobs are back, the dramas of the past seemingly lulled, and although the town bears the marks of its history, new stories are unfolding.
But a fresh menace is creeping around the lakeshore and the lanes of the town, and the peace of the community is about to be shattered in an unimaginable way. Young people are being drawn towards the promise of fast money whilst the generation above them tries to push back the tide of an enemy no one can touch…
Told in twenty-one voices, Heart, be at Peace is a heartfelt, lyrical novel that can be read independently, or as a companion to Donal Ryan’s multi-award-winning novel, The Spinning Heart, voted ‘The Irish Book of the Decade’.
*****
PRAISE FOR DONAL RYAN:
'One of the finest novelists writing today.' RACHEL JOYCE
'His paragraphs are unnoticeably beautiful, his heart always on show' ANNE ENRIGHT
'Endlessly surprising and incredibly moving' DAVID NICHOLLS
'A life-enhancing talent' SEBASTIAN BARRY
'I would struggle to think of any other Irish author working today who writes with as much compassion as Donal Ryan' LOUISE O'NEILL
'Beautiful, compassionate...Donal Ryan at his inimitable best.' MAGGIE O'FARRELL
'Beautifully poised, sad, poetic and human....I loved every single line.' IAN RANKIN
'The prose drips like honey off a spoon' SUNDAY TIMES
Nero Book Awards Shortlisted, 2024
An Post Book Awards, November and December 2024
Irish Times bestseller, August 2024
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A beautifully written portrait of smalltown life in rural Ireland—told through 21 very different voices. Donal Ryan’s sizeable achievement here reminded us of Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These in style. It possesses similarly clear, precise prose and believable dialogue. Both offer an unvarnished deep dive into the dreams of a set of people, and hint at the darkness and danger that infiltrates everyday lives. The dark threats faced by the small town juxtapose themselves beautifully and quite tragically against Ryan’s beautifully poetic writing.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The alluring latest from Ryan (The Queen of Dirt Island) comprises intimate monologues from 21 characters grappling with social change in small-town Ireland. The central arc, such as it is, turns on the arrival of a gang of small-time drug dealers and the efforts of locals to drive them out. But this is less a traditional novel than a collection of tightly linked stories animated by the author's unwavering curiosity about what makes people tick. Bobby, a good man who has borne the tragedy of his father's murder, assaults a stranger and worries his wife will find out he's visited a sex worker. Lily, "a witch by training and a whore by inclination," schemes to prevent her beautiful granddaughter from falling under the spell of a drug dealer. Trevor, a former mental patient, mixes and weighs drugs for the dealers in his mother's home. Readers may have trouble keeping track of the many characters, each of whom is connected to the others through webs of family relations and ancient bad blood, but their monologues rivet with lyrical prose and bolts of gentle humor, such as Trevor's grandiose speculation that he descends from Jonathan Swift given their "many commonalities." This beautifully crafted work offers much to admire.
