The Spinning Heart

THE STUNNING FIRST NOVEL BY THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF HEART BE AT PEACE AND WHERE ARE THE KINGS
Winner of the Guardian First Book Award Shortlisted for the Dublin IMPAC Literary Award Longlisted for the Man Booker PrizeWinner of Book of the Year at the Irish Book AwardsWinner of the European Prize for Literature Voted Irish Book of the Decade in 2016Voted top 20 Irish Books of last 20 years 2026

“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.”

Now winner of six Irish Book Awards and a No.1 bestselling author, Donal Ryan exploded on to the literary scene with his stunning debut, set in the aftermath of Ireland’s financial collapse. When dangerous tensions surface in a small Irish town, the characters face a battle between their public persona and inner desires. Told through a chorus of twenty-one 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.

Covers may vary

Discover Donal Ryan's new novel, WHERE ARE THE KINGS, out now.

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'Filled with light and shade, love and tragedy ... if it was a song you could sing it' ANNE ENRIGHT

'Donal Ryan is the real deal ... a brilliantly realised, utterly resonant state-of-the-nation landscape' SUNDAY INDEPENDENT

'I can't imagine a more original, more perceptive or more passionate work than this. Outstanding' JOHN BOYNE

'It's furious, it's moving, it's darkly funny, it punches you right in the gut' NEW YORK TIMES

'Funny, moving and beautifully written' EDNA O'BRIEN

'The unambiguous announcement of a genuine and apparently fully-formed new talent' FINANCIAL TIMES