I haven’t read anything by Donal Ryan, but I’ll be looking out his earlier work because Heart, Be at Peace is such an incredibly powerful story. The narrative is twenty one separate voices, or characters, multi generational and each with a perspective on what’s going on in the town. Some chapters are vignettes and the writing is lyrical and enveloping. It’s complex as so many strands are woven together, but Ryan seems to make it effortless when, ultimately , it all becomes a whole. He very cleverly explores a darker underbelly to rural Irish life. It feels real and there’s conflict and brutality along the way. The old versus the young, good versus evil, traditional life or an exciting counter culture. This is just such an amazing story. It ought to be on prize lists. One I think I’ll return to at some point just for the writing and imagery within. Truly loved this title.

I highly recommend reading Irish authors and Donal Ryan is one of the best; having read many of his novels I’m always intrigued by the way he explores community and character in a simple but powerful way.
‘Heart, be at peace’ is no different but you have to hang on tight for the rollercoaster of twenty-one separate voices spinning a deep insight into current social and political issues from a multitude of perspectives.
This book is an independent follow-up to The Spinning Wheel which I haven’t read, revisiting many of the same people ten years on.
In a non-linear fashion Donal Ryan gives us small pieces fitted together into a ragged jigsaw where some of the characters left me wanting more - and who knows, perhaps Ryan follows up in another ten years.
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4/5 stars
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Honest review given in exchange of a free copy from NetGalley. Thank you!

A beautifully written story which is narrated in a continuous narrative by twenty-one different voices. Beautifully crafted, lyrical and compelling.

This is such a beautifully written, lyrical book despite its often grim content and sense of dread and I enjoyed basking in the words. However, I found the 21 voices with all their connections really hard to follow and felt it made me care less about the characters.
I haven't read any of Donal Ryan's books before, so didn't realise this was a companion piece to "spinning heart" and feel it may have helped to read this first and thus have met some of the characters
Thank you to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

Such a gorgeous book. Characters, each with their own stories, that all weave in and out of each others lives. I was drawn in from the opening chapters and devoured over two days.

DONAL RYAN – HEART BE AT PEACE *****

The only easy thing in reviewing Heart be at Peace is awarding it five stars.

This is the first Donal Ryan novel I have read. In a sense it’s not a novel, more a series of first-person narratives of short story length that eventually make a whole. It’s about members of an extended Irish family at different stages of their lives, many of whom it turns out are involved with or on the periphery of a ruthless drugs business.

It’s a masterful telling. Male or female, the characters are distinctive and the further you read the more you realise how intricately they are linked with the problems they face.

Beautifully written prose with plenty of raw violence and ladles of bad language this may not be for the faint hearted, but it definitely is worth a read.

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.

Lots of different characters from the same community come to life in this book. The trouble is I just don’t get it. It’s like I have started to read the book halfway through. I’m not sure what Donal Ryan is trying to convey. I have read and enjoyed other books by this writer but this one I struggled with. I can appreciate the description, the writing but it just doesn’t hang together for me.

Heart, Be at Peace is written in 21 voices which is way too many for me. I was quickly overwhelmed with the sheer number of characters and all their friends and family to the point where I had little clue what was happening for the first half of the book. I started making notes on the characters and their relationships with one another which did help for the second half but it didn’t make for a relaxing read.

There is a prequel, The Spinning Heart, which we are told that it is not necessary to have read first. I think reading that may have helped me be familiar with the characters and get more engrossed in this novel.

Some characters crop up a lot, such as a drugs gang called Augie Penrose, Jordan Pitts, Tyrone Dowel and Lee Braden. There were other references that came up a lot such as the kidnapping of a young boy, Dylan, for a couple of days but I didn’t understand how that related to other things in the book. I was also unsure of more to the story of Peter, son of Jim and Mary who drowned.

The writing is great but I just found the numerous characters and meandering tales too tricky to hold my attention.

With thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review but any book with over fifty characters is not for me without a character list at the beginning.

Heart be at peace By Donal Ryan is a sequel to the author’s debut novel ‘The Spinning heart.’ I didn’t realise this, but I have read a few of the author's other works and enjoyed them. So, I was looking forward to reading this.
As per previous novel this revolves around 21 voices or characters if you will of a small Irish town. Each of them telling a little story of themselves and the stories intertwine with each other. This is well written story; the author is a great storyteller and I enjoyed of the individual characters stories. But for me personally because I didn’t read the previous one, I felt like there was something missing. 4 stars from me.

A satisfying read, even if you haven’t read The Spinning Heart. This book is written in multiple voices - each chapter a new person and viewpoint, revealing more about the central plot and themes.

The stories are connected as the characters inhabit the same community. Ryan skilfully builds this community in the reader’s mind by weaving stories of love and friction, as well as looming apprehension in the face of an overarching threat to the community. The threat is plain to all yet hidden by its perpetrators, who protect themselves by keeping their own hands clean.

Ryan writes of heavy subjects but does not let the words or story get weighed down, keeping things fresh through his style and with each new chapter voice.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy.

Heart, Be at Peace is the follow up to The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan. Ireland is now out of the recession that impacted the characters of The Spinning Heart but they are still dealing with the aftermath and a new threat to their community. Told from the viewpoints of many different characters at different stages throughout the timeline of the story, it revisits many of the characters from The Spinning Heart. If you haven’t read it, I encourage you to do so as it is my favourite of Ryan’s work but this can also be read as a stand-alone novel. Ryan is a beautiful writer who captures the nuances of Irish life and, in particular, the complexities of being an Irish man perfectly. All of these characters are fundamentally recognisable to me. I would say that Heart, Be at Peace does not pack the same emotional punch as The Spinning Heart but it is still a beautiful, immensely readable story that will stay with me.

This is the wonderful Irish writer Donal Ryan's latest offering, apparently a follow up to his much lauded earlier The Spinning Heart, structured around 21 voices that painted a picture of Ireland, some of whom reappear here. However, I have unfortunately never read that, the 21 voices here are portrayed with the author' trademark skilful brevity that captures and brings alive the characters he sketches, with a poignant lyricism, this time providing us with an updated atmospheric picture of contemporary Ireland. Set in Limerick, Clare, Tipperary, it touches on Ireland's past, and the changing threats, their impact and repercussions, and ominous and challenging dangers it faces, along with the limitations of small town living.

There is an authenticity in the distinctly different characters created and developed, the multiple perspectives, each connecting and building through its varied people the present day themes affecting the nation today, as it shapes into a social, economic, and political commentary. It includes the return of the untrustworthy Pokey Burke who had betrayed, Bobby Mahon with his worries about the drug dealers, the horrors associated with drugs, the rising crime, and the growing brutality and tensions, and then there is Triona, Bobby's wife. The gripping narrative leads to the drama of the conclusions.

There is a circular coming together at the end that brings a unity to this whole work, times may have moved on, but essentially people are people, pointing to the familiarity of history inevitably repeating itself again and again. Simply marvellous, and I really must read The Spinning Heart! Highly recommended to those who love Irish fiction. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Novel or short story collection?

This is a book which isn’t sure if it’s a novel or short story collection. It consists of twenty-one chapters, each containing a monologue by an individual. The author uses a type of intense naturalism so it’s as if you stood next to one of these characters at the bar in a rural pub, listening in on the chat and gossip. All twenty-one characters live in the same small town somewhere in Ireland and all talk of the struggles and hurts they have to face to keep living as best they can. There is no contextual description by a narrator who would be able to set the scene and establish each character. All the reader has is the words spoken or thought by the individual. So the reader has to deduce the setting from clues within the monologue. So far, so innovative. But it makes for a challenging read. The reader has to read slowly and carefully so as to tune into the suggested situations.

Because the author eschews any sense of an exposition, it’s very easy to lose track (and thus interest) in what is going on. It’s more novel-like than it seems. Most of the twenty-one characters interact with the other characters as you would expect in a novel. Certain characters appear and reappear such as Pokey and Augie. Their misdemeanours and transgressions pop up all over the place. Violence and theft are never far away. So there’s a sense of a novel (but never fully formed as such) with the structure of a short story collection.
I struggled to read this book and it became much easier when I had a notebook and pen to hand so I could track events and the cross references between chapters. I often felt that I was reading the first draft of a radio play that hadn’t yet had the signposting of music and sound effects written in so as to help the reader understand better what was happening.

All credit to the author for attempting an individual approach to writing fiction. The characters and their predicaments are wonderfully well written. But it’s not an easy read. If you’re up for the challenge and have your notebook and pen to hand, why not give it a try?

My thanks go to NetGalley for providing an advance copy so that I may give an honest and unbiased review.

Twenty-one narrators from a small Irish town tell their stories as their rural community is threatened by drug dealers, debt and violence in this beautifully written book. It works like a series of snapshots which work together to reveal deeper truths. Each voice speaks simply but in a few lines, their personalities, feelings and experiences come alive from the page. I did find it a bit difficult to remember who was who and what they had done, but that was perhaps because I read in short bursts, and it might have been helpful if I had read the author’s earlier novel, “The Spinning Heart,” which introduced the characters, although it can also be enjoyed read alone. A vibrant and emotional book.

For fans of The Spinning Heart, this 9 years later follow on book is poignant, and beautifully written. I'm a longtime fan of Donal Ryan's offerings, and glad to say this one didn't disappoint! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance reader copy.

Firstly, a big thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read Donal Ryan's new book, Heart, Be at Peace. Donal Ryan is one of my favourite writers and this book is no exception to the genius he has shown in all of his previous novels. The story continues on from The Spinning Heart telling the story of the characters lives ten years on. Twenty one different voices tell their version of the truth of the small town dramas. Their lives are inter-woven but the community has a new threat that changes the dynamics causing an unrest and an unsettling of the past. I loved how DR unravels each character and exposes their weaknesses making them raw and vulnerable. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that can get their hands on it. 5 Stars

Beautifully written, very real voices in my head although I did have some trouble sorting out who was who as a lot of stories. Perhaps easier if I had read the prequel.

And mine is aching. Beautifully written. 4.5 rating, raised.

I had not encountered this author before, and will for sure now be searching out his earlier writing, particularly the one which pre-figures this, published over 10 years ago, The Spinning Heart.

It’s important to say the reader can read THIS book, as I did, without the need to read the earlier. Both are set in the same small rural town, and re-visit characters previous met ten years ago, so providing some kind of ‘sign of the times’ novel, through the lives of individuals.

If I HAD read The Spinning Heart, I would no doubt have immediately reread it, to remind myself of who someone was, 10 years earlier, and it would probably have given me a little more context. However, just like we discover someone’s back story over time, as we get to know them more deeply, I shall visit their past now, with the knowledge of the present adding depth.

This is a story of a close community, with all the dysfunctional rifts, resentments, and the cohering loyalties which community, like family, bring. So, relationships are complex, conflicts woven in.

Ryan does not tell his story in linear fashion, instead, there is a telling through the voices of 21 individuals, friends, family members, even those who have gone before, and for complex reasons, are unquiet spirits – or maybe, unquiet spirits merely in the memories of those still living

There is also a strong narrative within this, as some of the problems which deprivation, challenges with affordable housing and jobs bring, communities fracturing, opportunities for the young diminishing, are rife. Where slow and steady money opportunities are less ready, fast methods offer easy rewards for some, through drug running, recruiting small time crooks at an early stage at the school gates. So this is a major drive of plot.

The central character in all of this story is Bobby, a good man with a dark secret and one which is a darker one in his mind, than it might be in the mind of the one person he dreads knowing it.

The only reason I have withheld the final star, is because I think, curiously, I would have found this easier to handle the juggle of 21 different voices in a wood book, with the physical shape of chapters and empty space on pages. This might have just been a challenge of the digital ARC, with its inevitable not quite finalised formatting, but sometimes I did struggle a little to hold all these voices and their connections, together, even though the writing itself manages those voices well.

Whilst Donal Ryan's 'Heart, Be at Peace' is a companion novel to 'The Spinning Heart' published in 2012, it is very much a story that stands on its own two feet. Told from 21 different perspectives, it tells the story of a small rural community in Ireland who having experienced economic collapse, find themselves drawn to more dangerous and damaging ways to make money.

Ryan is not a novelist I have read before, and I'm so glad that something made me pick this book to review. The characterisation is amazing, and the way that the different perspectives weave together is clever and complex. Whilst at times I found myself uncertain about who people were and how they fitted, this just made me want to read the novel again, rather than being a difficulty. Indeed, I have now bought 'The Spinning Heart', and having read other reviews that reference authors who perhaps were inspired by Ryan's 2012 novel and use similar literary devices to tell their Irish story (e.g. 'Mouthing' by Orla Mackay) I have now found myself a whole area of literature I hadn't explored. I would highly recommend this novel and think it maybe my book of the year so far!

I’m always intrigued by a story told in multiple voices and this book satisfied that intrigue. They all have a different tale to tell and that then gives the reader the task of working out how the individual voices come together - for good or bad.
There is so much going on in this book, that I didn’t want to put it down; especially if I turned the page to a new voice - I had to keep reading because I wanted to hear what they had to say.
It was a new author for me to read and I shall definitely be reading more of his books.