Winner - The Guardian First Book Award

Winner of two Irish Book Awards - Newcomer of The Year and Book of The Year

Longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize

"Irish author Ryan's debut takes readers to the 'heart' of hardscrabble life in Ireland in the era after the economic boom and bust of 2008. The novel received Book of the Year honors at the Irish Book Awards. . . . Reminiscent of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, this book gives readers a story—or rather stories—told from multiple perspectives, each chapter using a different voice. . . . Disturbing and unnerving but ultimately beautiful." -- Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"The traditional epithet for a good first novel is 'promising'. The Spinning Heart, however, is far more than that. Instead, it's the unambiguous announcement of a genuine and apparently fully-formed new talent." -- The Spectator

"A funny, moving, technically inventive first novel.... Structurally the novel gestures to William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, while Ryan's sensitive observations on Irish life seem responsive to the work of his compatriot Patrick McCabe. That Ryan does not look out of place in such literary company is a measure of his achievement." -- The Financial Times

"The recession has hit rural Ireland, and 'the sky is falling down." Through 21 different voices, Donal Ryan's virtuoso debut novel pieces together a fractured portrait of a community in shock. . . . What is so special about Ryan's novel is that it seems to draw speech out of the deepest silences; the testimony of his characters rings rich and true – funny and poignant and banal and extraordinary – and we can't help but listen." -- The Guardian

"I have ordered a copy of The Spinning Heart for everyone I know who loves to read. What a treasure of a book." -- Natascha McElhone

"I can't imagine a more original, more perceptive or more passionate work than this. Outstanding." -- John Boyne

"A first novel that's up-to-date in its concerns but that also transcends the merely topical in its bleak, if often savagely funny, vision of a rural Ireland. Donal Ryan has an imaginative insight into his characters that's all his own and a furious energy to his prose that gives arrestingly vivid life to these blighted souls." -- John Boland

"Ryan's feat is considerable. Narrative and character information is distributed among so many different voices and yet we never feel at a loss. Best of all, Ryan's ear for speech is acute...Given a novel as brilliantly realized as The Spinning Heart, I see no reason to look anywhere but the present. For Donal Ryan, the future is now." -- Declan Hughes

"A new Irish writer of the very first order. Donal Ryan is the real deal." -- The Sunday Independent

"For all the harshness of language and the often brutal experiences, The Spinning Heart is unexpectedly tender. . . . An exciting contemporary novel about the lost and the wounded that listens to the present without discarding either the sins of the fathers or the literary legacy of the past." -- The Irish Times

"Startling audacity... [The Spinning Heart] may be slim in size, but it is hugely ambitious in structure and devastating in its emotional impact. Too often contemporary fiction is criticized for not engaging enough with contemporary issues, but this breathtakingly empathetic account of a community crumbling under the pressures of the recession deserves to stand as a companion piece to Anne Enright's wonderful The Forgotten Waltz, also set against the boom and bust of recent Irish history." -- Lisa Allardice, Guardian First Book Award Chair andGuardian Review Editor

Author available for media interviews.

Tie-in to St. Patrick's-Day-inspired coverage of Irish culture.

Widespread review attention in general print and on-line review publications .

Featured in Irish-interest media.Featured in financial media that covers literature --WSJ, Financial Times, NPR's Marketplace, Bloomberg Business Week, etc. -- due to its focus on the human costs of Ireland's economic collapse.

Major ARC printing and distribution.

Indie Next - September White Box Mailing.

B&N Discover Submission