Your basket is empty.
-
- Books
A companion piece to Ryan's modern classic The Spinning Heart, this characteristically eloquent and emotionally acute novel focuses on the tribulations of a rural Irish town through the prism of twenty-one distinct voices.
‘I said it before. Madness comes circling around. Ten-year cycles, as true as the sun will rise…’
Some things can send a heart spinning; others will crack it in two.
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…
A stunning, lyrical novel told in twenty-one voices, Heart, be at Peace can be read independently, or as a companion to Donal Ryan’s multi-award-winning novel, The Spinning Heart, voted ‘The Irish Book of the Decade’.
Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
ISBN: 9780857525239
Number of pages: 208
Weight: 315 g
Dimensions: 224 x 143 x 21 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
An astute mosaic. Add to that Ryan’s gift for capturing the foolishness and fakery of human nature and the lyrical power of Irish small-town gossip . . . and you have a portrait of modern Ireland through a series of hard minds and sometimes kind hearts - Independent
Ryan dives deep into his characters’ hopes and grievances, drawing out their voices with such precision that you can almost hear their breath between words . . . With any luck we will be back in this small place of vast intrigue to pick up with its people again a decade from now. - Financial Times
[The novel is] a kind of simulacrum of life, as if we have been landed in this village, have a chance to overhear its inhabitants’ most private thoughts, move from one house to another, sit in the pub, discover who believes who is to blame for what, and what can be excused or forgiven - Guardian
This beautiful and moving novel, told in 21 voices, serves up heartbreak and hope in equal measure. - The Lady
It's all there. Donal’s trademark big heart and understanding of what it is to be human, all of it on the page and somehow beyond it. I loved it from the first page to the last … there are more moments of genius in this book than I care to mention. Beautiful ... a book full of love and hope, more needed in these days than ever. - Kit de Waal, author of My Name is Leon
You may also be interested in...
“Gorgeous”
A beautiful poetic book. Told from 21 perspectives, this novel tells the story of a community on the edge of disaster. Enormously moving and hauntingly written, this is Irish literature at its best.
“Writing to be reckoned with”
If you happen to be on a mission to find the most natural storytellers, add Donal Ryan — and this book particularly — to the top of your list. A selection of characters and their stories, interwoven by chance and... More
“Heart, Be At Peace”
Heart, Be at Peace is written as if by 21 different characters from the plot which made it difficult to track especially in the kindle version. I was quickly confused with the different relationships between the... More
Please sign in to write a review
Sign In / Register
Sign In
Download the Waterstones App
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?