Heart, Be at Peace
A Novel
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3.9 • 11 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the Irish Book of the Year * A New Yorker Best Book of the Year * Winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction * Shortlisted for the Nero Novel of the Year * A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
From one of the most acclaimed Irish writers today, a new novel about smalltown Ireland that explores a community on the mend and the power of love and trauma to both bring people together and divide them
“I said it before. Madness comes circling around. Ten-year cycles, as true as the sun will rise. . .”
In a small town in Ireland, the local people have weathered the storm of economic collapse and now look to the future: The jobs are back, the dramas of the past seemingly lulled, and although the town bears the scars of its history, new stories have begun to unfold.
But an insidious menace now creeps through back-alley shadows and into the lives of the townspeople. Old grudges fester and new ones arise. Young people are lured by the promise of fast money while the generation above them tries to hold back the tide of an enemy beyond their control. And the peace of this town is about to be shattered in an unimaginable way.
A stunning, lyrical novel told in twenty-one voices, Heart, Be at Peace reveals a community that together looks to overcome the betrayals, secrets, and grudges that can divide families, neighbors, and entire generations.
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.
Customer Reviews
Highly recommend.
Great writing. Novel approach to the story with a different narrator for each chapter. Sometimes hard to follow, but worth the effort.