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Donal Ryan

Ireland (b.1977)

Donal Ryan was born in a village in north Tipperary, a stroll from the shores of Lough Derg. Donal wrote the first draft of The Spinning Heart in the long summer evenings of 2010. He lives with his wife and two children just outside Limerick City.

Genres: Literary Fiction

New and upcoming books

August 2024

Heart, Be at Peace

Novels

   The Spinning Heart (2012)
   The Thing About December (2013)
   All We Shall Know (2016)
   From a Low and Quiet Sea (2018)
   Strange Flowers (2020)
   The Queen of Dirt Island (2022)
   Heart, Be at Peace (2024)

Collections

A Slanting of the Sun (2015)
How Much the Heart Can Hold (2016) (with others)

Books containing stories by Donal Ryan

Voices (2020)
An Open Door Book of Stories
edited by
Patricia Scanlan

Dubliners 100 (2014)
edited by
Thomas Morris

Awards

2013 Guardian First Book Award : The Spinning Heart

Award nominations

	2018 Costa Book Award for Best Novel (nominee) : From a Low and Quiet Sea
	2018 Booker Prize (longlist) : From a Low and Quiet Sea
	2013 Booker Prize (longlist) : The Spinning Heart

Donal Ryan recommends

You Are Here (2024)
David Nicholls
"What a beautiful, beautiful novel, sensitive, witty, and brilliantly insightful and kind about us messy, stupid humans. I loved every single step of it. I will miss it now that I'm finished and I know that it will be one of those rare novels that will dwell in my memory and my heart."

Kala (2023)
Colin Walsh
"I was kept awake until the birds were singing. What a story. I was riveted. It captures so much of the essence of the thrill and excitement of teenage summers, the wonderful optimism of youth and first loves, and the ease with which corruption and evil can take hold and thrive. This is a dazzling novel."

The Polite Act of Drowning (2023)
Charleen Hurtubise
"The Polite Act of Drowning is a beautiful and captivating novel, lyrical and sensuous, a precise and faithful evocation of the tumult and trauma of family life, and of emergence into adulthood, and the confrontation of truths about ourselves and the people we love."

My Father's House (2023)
(Rome Escape Line Trilogy, book 1)
Joseph O'Connor
"A masterwork... so urgent, so incredibly alive... A searing and beautiful example of storytelling's infinite importance."

In a Thousand Different Ways (2022)
Cecelia Ahern
"A novel that's so wise and profound, there's gold on every page."

An Olive Grove in Ends (2022)
Moses McKenzie
"[An Olive Grove in Ends] is magnificent. Moses' talent is off the scale. I've been in a bit of a reading slump lately and it's a long time since a novel gripped me so tightly . . . This is a phenomenally good novel, tense and thrilling and complex, with breath-stealing moments on every page. And the language. Oh, man."

Drift (2022)
Caryl Lewis
"A truly beautiful and haunting novel, and an incredible feat of storytelling."

Iron Annie (2021)
Luke Cassidy
"What an exquisite novel Iron Annie is. The narrative voice fair crackles: it's full of wonder, grit, insight, sadness and joy, and is quite beautiful. And Aoife is one of those fictional characters that arrives only once or twice in an age, sublimely rendered and completely unforgettable."

Holding Her Breath (2021)
Eimear Ryan
"Written with a wonderful clarity and insight, Holding Her Breath lingers in the imagination. Beth's unravelling and re-ravelling is drawn with great skill and empathy. A brilliant debut."

Redder Days (2021)
Sue Rainsford
"So immense and beautiful, it's both gorgeously composed and an addictive page-turner. Sue Rainsford is an extraordinary writer."

Bright Burning Things (2021)
Lisa Harding
"A tense, unflinching, immersive mapping of a pitted track of addiction and recovery . . . I lived every scene as I read, and I know that these characters will be with me for a long time."

The Stray Cats of Homs (2020)
Eva Nour
"An absolutely riveting novel . . . a rare and precious humanizing of the terrible conflagration in Syria. Eva is a writer of the first order and this is a searing and incredibly important book, storytelling at its best."

The Butchers (2020)
Ruth Gilligan
"I was hooked from the first page. It was an exhilarating, unsettling reading experience: I felt at once like an outsider and completely at home as I read and was at all times completely immersed and wowed at Ruth's storytelling prowess."

The Fire Starters (2019)
Jan Carson
"Spectacular . . . Dark, beautiful, at once grittily real and wildly magical. Insanely alluring."

Last Ones Left Alive (2019)
Sarah Davis-Goff
"This dystopian future Ireland will unnerve and intrigue and thrill readers everywhere."

When All Is Said (2019)
Anne Griffin
"A hugely enjoyable, engrossing novel, a genuine page-turner."

He Is Mine and I Have No Other (2018)
Rebecca O'Connor
"I adored He is Mine and I Have No Other . . . Amazing, heartbreaking, brilliantly done."

Grace (2017)
Paul Lynch
"Grace is a mesmerizing, incandescent work of art. Paul Lynch is peerless. Grace Coyle, daughter of Coll, will be one of the enduring heroines of world literature."

The Coroner's Daughter (2017)
Andrew Hughes
"Just brilliant."

Days Without End (2016)
(Days Without End, book 1)
Sebastian Barry
"A beautiful, savage, tender, searing work of art. Sentence after perfect it grips and does not let go."

Between Dog and Wolf (2013)
Elske Rahill
"A dark, insightful and utterly compelling book, beautifully written."

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