I tried my best with this book. The good points are that Donal Ryan's prose is fabulous and yet again he perfectly captures the nuances of small town Irish people and life. Unfortunately I found the construction of the book with each short chapter by one of twenty-one different characters and voices very difficult to follow. Yes all the characters and parts of the story overlap and converge but telling the story this way is so splintered and disjointed that I found it incredibly difficult to follow and keep track of who was who and what connection all the characters have to each other. I also felt I wasn't getting to know any of the characters as the chapters were so short which did not help me stay engaged with the book. As a result I got halfway through before giving up as I was totally lost. I will go back to it again in the future after I have read The Spinning Heart as this book is a companion book and I feel that readers should definitely read the latter before attempting Heart, Be at Peace or else they could be totally lost like me.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Donal Ryan is quickly becoming one of my favourite writers. This I think does beat THE QUEEN OF DIRT ISLAND for me, I am sad to not be able to read it for the first time again! Brilliantly constructed characters, weaving in stories that cross the entire cast, I loved it.

I came across Donal Ryan for the first time last year when I read The Queen of Dirt Island and immediately fell in love with his writing. So, needless to say, I was very excited to pick up Heart, Be at Peace, which is being marketed as a companion piece to Ryan’s 2012 award-winning debut, The Spinning Heart.

Let me state straight off that I really struggled with this as a standalone. The vignette-style format, comprising the voices of 21 separate but interlinked characters, repeatedly referenced events from the past that made me feel out of the loop. I didn’t know these characters, and the brief stories did little to round them out for me. I couldn’t picture them in my head or figure out how they related to each other. In truth, it seemed more like a book of 21 short stories, rather than a homogeneous novel.

I’m left feeling frustrated. I expected and wanted to love this, but I’ve already forgotten the characters and have no real idea what the point of the book was. I’ve decided to come back to it at some point after reading The Spinning Heart to see if this makes a difference.

For now, as a standalone, I can only give this 3 stars.

I was sent an advance proof copy of Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan to read and review by NetGalley. This is a beautifully written, emotional piece of writing with chapters that are vignettes from characters told in the first person. At first they seem to hold no bearing to one another but the further into the book you go the more the names bind together. The author’s style of writing is quite unique and one that I really like - as I did in a previous novel of his The Queen of Dirt Island. I will certainly be reading more of his work in the future. Well worth the maximum 5 stars and more.

“I said it before. Madness comes circling around. Ten-year cycles, as true as the sun will rise”. Just as the central crisis of The Spinning Heart was the economic recession, the central crisis in Heart, Be at Peace is a kind of corruption brought about by the young people in the village becoming pulled into the drug trade, but that corruption is also visible at other levels, such as a scheme that takes advantage of immigrants coming to the area. In several of the characters, this feeling of corruption of what had been an ordinary, decent town feels like a betrayal, and that also feels connected back to the betrayal they felt when one of their own left so many of them with nothing after the crash.

Bobby, who had tried to put his old boss's wrongs right in The Spinning Heart also feels he has a part to play in Heart, Be At Peace. Bobby's children are getting older and he doesn't want them pulled into the get rich quick mentality that is getting the other youths mixed up in criminal activity, and as he looks around at the other older men in the community he realises if no one else is going to act, he must, and with that comes danger, “the terrible conviction that had a hold of him about his obligations as a man”.

Both books are about greed, in a way, and how that temptation will then ultimately be punished, by fate or more likely by other people, and they're also about how people go about doing the right thing, or what makes them a good person, a good parent, a good member of their community. But the books are also about the private battles people think that only they are facing, and the prisons people make for themselves too, and the impossibility of communicating this. One of Ryan's characters, desperate to break out of the patterns he feels stuck in, says that he wishes he could:

“marshal his thoughts into something creative, something worthwhile, something that comes from me and exists outside of me and might make a difference, however small, to someone else. Some other miserable fucker who thinks too much might read it or look at it and realize they're not the only one living in a prison of their own making inside their own skulls”.

I obviously loved Heart, Be At Peace and I don't know how he managed to pull off less of a sequel and more like the ideas of The Spinning Heart transposed onto a new decade, but it doesn't quite live up to the first book to me. I think the bar is too high when the original book seemed to have come out of nowhere, and is like nothing you've read before, because a sequel of course is going to be like the original and therefore just can't be so unique. Perhaps it's wrong to judge it as a standalone book, and I think that's why it has to be read as a companion to The Spinning Heart only, but Heart, Be at Peace is a beautifully written, thoughtful and moving companion at that.

Like The Spinning Heart, Heart, Be at Peace consists of a series of internal monologues by twenty-one different characters – men and women – each with a distinctive voice. It’s described by the publishers as a ‘companion novel’ to The Spinning Heart that can be read as a standalone. Personally, I think you get a richer reading experience if you’ve read The Spinning Heart because you’re learning about the continuing impact of events in the earlier book, as well as catching up with characters who are already familiar to you and seeing what they have made of their lives in the intervening years.

For some of the characters, what they’ve made of themselves is not much. Others have come out of their experiences stronger and wiser. Their stories sometimes involve dark themes, such as mental illness and there’s often violence, or its legacy, just under the surface.

Bobby was essentially the ‘hero’ of The Spinning Heart and he has pretty much the same role here. He is almost universally admired by his community. ‘Bobby is one of those rare men who measures himself against the wellbeing of the people around him. If there’s a problem he takes it personally and does his damnedest to solve it.’ He worked hard to help the town recover from the failure of the local building company that was the focus of the first book. He’s a regular visitor to his ailing mother-in-law and a faithful husband, despite seeming evidence to the contrary. He’s also shown forgiveness towards a man who, given the circumstances, you’d think he should hate. Perhaps it’s because Bobby came so close to acting in the same way himself.

Pokey Burke, the man responsible for the bankruptcy of the building company is still around and has found a new outlet for his devious ways, aided by an unwitting dupe. His role as villain of the piece has been usurped by Augie Penrose, the local drug dealer. Bobby feels a responsibility to take action out of fear for his children. In fact the urge to act is so strong it risks taking him down a path he has tried to resist, haunted by the memory of his violent father. As it turns out, there is someone with an even stronger motivation for ridding the community of the purveyors of the vile trade, just one of the many connections between characters and events.

If this sounds like the book is all about Bobby, it’s not. Each of the other characters has something to contribute although, as is to be expected, some resonate more than others. We learn about their hopes and fears, doubts and regrets, their successes and failures. We also get insights into other characters, and to events past and present. There are confessions, revelations and new perspectives. And there’s the odd touch of humour too since, let’s face it, most of us have some funny little ways unique to us.

As in The Spinning Heart, the final voice we hear is Bobby’s wife, Triona, the woman who knows him best. ‘I know what he’s capable of and what’s beyond him. I know his goodness better than he knows it himself.’ Full of compassion and understanding it means the book concludes on a note of optimism.

I appreciate the polyphonic structure of the book may not work for every reader, but it did for me. I felt the characters really came alive on the page even, possibly especially, the flawed ones. My introduction to Donal Ryan’s writing was From A Low and Quiet Sea. Now, having read The Spinning Heart and this book, I’m eager to explore the rest of his back catalogue.

I loved the writing style and the melancholic vibe of this book. I read the first one and it was good to see the same characters back and how life was treating them.
I wouldn’t say you go into this one hoping for an uplifting read though.

🇮🇪 REVIEW 🇮🇪

Heart, Be At Peace by Donal Ryan
Release Date: 15th August

📝 - 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…

💭 - I first read Donal Ryan’s “From a Low and Quiet Sea” back when I started reading again, and I loved it. So when I saw this one available on Netgalley it was a no-brainer. And it was absolutely the right decision. Donal Ryan has such a beautiful way with words, and his creation of characters is really up there. This one especially, tracking through people living within a small town Irish community, highlights how well he can create a such distinct characters who fit together to form a real community. While it was somewhat difficult to keep up with all the connections, it didn’t feel like I missed out on much of the story when I couldn’t remember who was who. A really brilliant and pretty short read, so definitely worth picking up when it’s out next week.

#heartbeatpeace #donalryan #newrelease #bookreview #irishfiction #irishliterature #netgalley #bookstagram #bookreviewer #arcreview #bookrecommendations #irishauthors

This latest novel from acclaimed Irish writer Donal Ryan updates the reader with the characters we met first in The Spinning Heart. It can be read as a stand-alone volume but I feel that it works better if the reader is already acquainted with the characters and their back stories, and I would suggest doing so. I’m not actually convinced that Ryan should in fact have revisited this small Irish community as I didn’t feel that the novel had the same magic that the earlier one did. 21 separate narratives, 21 distinct voices, but perhaps here not quite so distinct, and coming cold to the book could make reading it quite challenging trying to keep track of everyone. Here those 21 vignettes start to feel formulaic, and I wonder why Ryan felt drawn back to his characters. Publisher suggestion, maybe? Bobby Mahon is again the beating heart of the novel, as the community is once again threatened by outside forces, although here the solution that Bobby works towards is less convincing. Ryan is a great writer, there’s no denying that, but I still question whether he should have attempted to revive the magic.

Donal Ryan is the best living contemporary Irish writer today. This novel comprising linked stories is told beautifully with reference to characters first seen in The Spinning Heart. Through the voices of these 21 characters the reader is taken on a journey of life in a rural Irish community. I highly recommend this book to lovers of contemporary Irish literature. With thanks to Random House UK/Transworld and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Heart, Be At Peace.

What an incredible book. I recently reread The Spinning Heart in preparation for the publication of Heart, Be At Peace and was once again blown away by Donal Ryan's writing. He has such a wonderful talent; the ability to capture the depths and multitudes of human emotion. His new novel is no different.

Told through 21 distinct voices, this is the story of a contemporary and changed Ireland; specifically a rural County Tipperary community. We visit in on the characters we met in The Spinning Heart, and although time has moved on, their grudges and resentments linger. And now they have new challenges to contend with, and it speaks volumes about the state of the nation of Ireland. I was gripped by their tales, and I found it difficult to put this book down. The language and dialogue is uniquely Irish, and the novel encompasses everything from wider dangers to small domestic concerns. Despite it's modest page count, this is an ambitious novel that achieves plenty. I loved it.

I have heard such wonderful praise about Donal Ryan's writing and I can't believe that this is the first book of his that I've actually read - I will definitely be coming back for more after reading 'Heart, Be At Peace'.

This is the story of a close knit small Irish community - it is told through the voices of 21 different people in the community, each with their own back stories, their own family histories, their own loves, beliefs and prejudices. Some have been living in the area for generations, others are incomers to the area. They each have very distinct stories and voices, for some of them, their family history and loyalties are all important, for others, the lure of making money quickly is their motivation for their actions.

Each chapter is a mini-biography and we learn more about what makes the characters tick and why they have ended up in this moment. The story is beautifully structured. As the chapters piece together, elements drop into place that had been referenced previously, characters who are mentioned in passing previously may have their own chapter, and clues that had been left in earlier chapters come to the fore.

The people are generally thriving and prospering but there's an underlying drug problem which is growing stronger and more pernicious every day and the dealers are becoming ever more powerful. The community has to decide whether it can take action to drive them out or whether its too late for a meaningful intervention.

There's a lot to take away from the story, especially for readers of Donal Ryan's previous books - but it can read equally as a standalone novel.

What a debut Donal Ryan’s 2012 “The Spinning Heart” was. Runner-up in my Books Of The Year 2013, by 2015 I’d highlighted it for a piece I wrote for New Books magazine as one of the best books of the 21st Century to date. I marvelled at how what seemed initially a simple work was actually very complex in the way it created a whole community through 21 narrators who develop the plot in turn, without anyone getting a second bite of the cherry. I loved it. Donal Ryan also made my end of year Top 10 in 2022 with “The Queen Of Dirt Island”. He’s won awards, his books sell well and are critically acclaimed. I experienced probably an equal measure of anticipation and trepidation when I found out that his new book would be a sequel to “The Spinning Heart”.
Anticipation because I was thrilled that I would be spending time with this community again and trepidation because I really wasn’t sure that this book needed a sequel. It wasn’t until I finished the book and compared the two that I realised not only has the author used the same 21 characters as narrators but he has done so in exactly the same order.
I’m going to reveal at this point that I did really enjoy this but not as much as “The Spinning Heart”. I think there’s a couple of reasons why. The action takes place around 10 years later and whereas the event in the debut were fresh a lot of this sequel refers back to these events. You could read it as a stand-alone but it would not work as well as the debut does. Also, “The Spinning Heart” had a lovely organic feel with the plot being developed through the narrators. By using them in the same order, which is admittedly an admirable achievement, it feels as if the author is more constricted by the structure which means, for me, it didn’t flow quite as well.
The first narrator, Bobby, is once again at the centre of things. He is occupied by the spread of drugs into the small community and on a personal level about how his behaviour on an Amsterdam stag weekend is being perceived. Most of the other narratives stem from one or other of these events. There’s a few characters, new this time, involved with the drugs trade who do not have their say and the author even gets around one character who is no longer alive ten or so years on from the first book.
Ultimately, I do like that Donal Ryan has chosen to revisit with his new novel and it did get me flicking through “The Spinning Heart” once again and I’m really tempted to re-read the two books in tandem going from narrator to narrator which will give a whole new dimension. In this sense, it feels like the author has given us much more than a new novel here. I’m not actually disappointed that it doesn’t quite live up to “The Spinning Heart” for me because it offers new perspectives to explore.
“Heart, Be At Peace” was published by Doubleday in the UK on 8th August 2024. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

Heart, Be At Peace is Donal Ryan’s latest novel and a follow-up to his earlier book, The Spinning Heart, revisiting the same town and characters 10 years later.

Donal Ryan has an uncanny ability to capture the essence of all the different lives and personalities that make up small rural Irish communities and this book is very much a continuation of that. It almost reads as a collection of short stories, with each chapter told from the perspective of a different voice in the community, though there is an over-riding arc that links them together. While it’s an enticing method of story-telling, there are inevitably some characters you’ll find yourself wishing to hear more from or wanting to get back to. Nonetheless, it's yet another beautifully written novel from one of Ireland's best contemporary writers.

Can it be read as a standalone novel? Yes probably, but the sense of familiarity and enjoyment in catching up with this small community is all the more greater if you read, or possibly even re-read, The Spinning Heart first.

Every once in a while an author comes along with words on his page that encapsulate the very essence of what it is to be Irish. Descriptions of community, phrases, emotion, author Donal Ryan makes you feel it all. He is a gifted storyteller and writes so beautifully.
Carefully crafting each character in his debut novel The Spinning Heart, he continues their story some ten years later in Heart, Be At Peace. A standalone sequel though...
Moving on from Ireland when the recession hit, we delve back in to the lives of each character, each with their own distinctive voice.
Life hasn't been good for many of them but we see how they all cross paths in some way as they deal with the aftermath. Strong in their own right though.
Ireland is all about community and this was so prominent in all his stories.
I felt the author gave a voice to every character in his stories in a way that brought emotion and compassion.
I laughed with some of them, cried with others as their stories unfolded.
I can't praise the author highly enough for his memories, his storytelling, for his voice.
Beautifully done..

As a follow-up to another book, this book stands alone, but is also a clever development of the stories and lives of characters told in fragments- we, like the characters, watch them from a distance as they try to hold their lives together against difficulties.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

As a long time fan of Donal Ryan, I was so looking forward to reading this and it is amongst his finest to date. We are immersed into the rural life of 21 characters in an Irish village with its quirkiness and characters and of course, its dark heart. All characters are brought to life with touching detail and a breadth and depth of character that is conveyed so succinctly in the writing. It is beautifully written and despite what could be seen as a limited insight or development of each character, Ryan has once again produced a masterfully powerful and satisfying novel.

My goodness, what an emotional ride. Twenty-one stories, all moving towards an utterly unexpected denouement, each one packed with passion and pathos. I wasn’t able to read this in one sitting, and I found the plentiful characters tripped me up at times because of the time between reading. The writing is sublime (another signature Irish author!), as is the capturing of life in a village after an economic crisis. I was giddy from the cornucopia of emotions.
I haven’t read Donal Ryan’s award-winning book ‘The Spinning Heart’ but the sequel stands alone. I shall, however, be adding it to my TBR list!

Retired garda Jim Gildea said it best - "Madness comes circling around. Ten-year cycles, as true as the sun will rise." Well, ten years have passed, and for many of the residents of Nenagh in County Tipperary, the rage and despair of those dark economic times are a distant memory. Many, but not all. However, even for those whose circumstances have changed for the better, there is a new scourge sitting like a dark cloud over this small Irish community. It sits outside the school gates, hides behind darkly tinted car widows, glides across the river in the dead of night, and turns regular people into demons. Drugs.

Following the same format as The Spinning Heart, in exactly the same order, we see how our 21 characters' lives and fortunes have changed in those 10 intervening years. The ending left me with my heart in my mouth.

I really enjoyed returning to this community, after having read The Spinning Heart a few months ago. There were constant sparks of recognition and memory, as well as urgent backtracking a couple of times (to the other book) to make sure I was remembering people and events correctly. Having said that, I think this book can absolutely be read as a standalone, but if you are going to read both, then I'd suggest reading them in order. I also got a little thrill from the Easter egg for fans of The Queen of Dirt Island. Small but welcome.

I hadn't read Donal Ryan's previous work, which featured the same characters, but that didn't dampen my enjoyment of this at all. A huge cast of characters (sometimes so many it's hard to keep track) telling many aspects of the same story in individual chapters, this gives an incredible groundedness to the story and brings the place vividly to life. Highly recommended and thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.