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.
Conversation with the Sea (2025) Hugo Hamilton "I don't think I've ever read a book as wise, or as moving. It's replete with images that I know will stay with me forever: the red dots; the motorcycling couple; the pink-jacketed U-bahn man; the flung suitcases; the women on the truck; and Lukas's almost ghostly, liminal presence in his own story, as he tries and tries to give coherence to the inchoate; to work his grief and trauma into some kind of resolution. His pain and his yearning lift up from every line, and what lines they are. This is a book of Everything: love, family, home, war, migration, loss; at once and by turns gentle and ferocious, luminous and dark, and ultimately filled with hope. I feel changed by this novel, and I will treasure it forever."
The Benefactors (2025) Wendy Erskine "I miss it already. Even when they were being horrible bastards the characters were stirring my heart. Wendy evokes the grim gradations of class and wealth with such a clear eye and unerring hand. She's an incredible writer. All these voices so true and so loud in my ear. What a beautiful, hilarious blast of brilliance."
The Lighthouse Keeper's Wife (2025) June O'Sullivan "On such a tiny stage, a rock in the ocean, June presents an epic story of love, loss, betrayal, heartbreak, and survival. This is a stunning debut."
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."
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."
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."
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."
