Bookseller Reviews
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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 ... READ MORE
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 wri... READ MORE
Beautiful
Another stunning and poetic novel from Donal Ryan. This small town in rural Ireland and its residents bare the scars of the economic crash and Ryan tells t... READ MORE
Heart, Be At Peace
I am ashamed to say I have only recently started to read Donal Ryan. I read The Spinning Heart and his short story collection, and was blown away. Then whe... READ MORE
"This is life, this is life, this is how it's meant to be."
'Heart, Be At Peace' is an incredibly tender novel that seamlessly weaves together 21 characters from a rural town in Ireland. Donal Ryan's writing is beau... READ MORE
He's done it again
What has he done again exactly? Destroyed me with his beautiful, lyrical prose that leaves you feeling less like you are reading and more like you're in a ... READ MORE
Synopsis
‘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 information
- Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
- ISBN: 9780857525239
- Number of pages: 208
- Dimensions: 222 x 142 x 20 mm
- Weight: 315g
- Languages: English
Customer Reviews
View allSmall town microcosm
Late in this beautifully written, multi-voiced novel, one of the characters says that madness comes in ten-year-cycles. So here we are, ten years on from D... READ MORE
Wonderfully elegant & shrewd
Heart, Be at Peace
By Donal Ryan
I have been meaning to read something by Donal Ryan for ages. Although this is a sequel or companion piece to The Spi... READ MORE
A very good read.
This is another good read by the author. I love how he seems to get right into the heads of all the characters. Every chapter is written from points of vie... READ 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 quic... READ MORE
Enjoyable read
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... READ MORE
Heart, Be At Peace
This was - astonishingly - my first Donal Ryan book but absolutely won't be my last. Told as 21 separate short stories, the characters and the places the t... READ MORE
Quality writing!
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 wr... READ MORE
A brilliant follow up to Spinning Heart
The author’s debut novel (actually the second he wrote but first to get a publishing contract) “The Spinning Heart” was Booker longlisted (one of two longl... READ MORE
New fan!
Unfortunately, this is the first book I have read by Donal Ryan, and it's a wrong that I need to right!
I'm glad to have discovered his writings and I gre... READ MORE
Simply Gorgeous Writing
Thank you very much to the publishers for this early review copy.
Donal is such a fabulous writer that his books are always a treat.
Simply gorgeous writ... READ MORE
A sequel to one of my all-time favourite novels
What a debut Donal Ryan’s 2012 “The Spinning Heart” was. I marvelled at how what seemed initially a simple work was actually very complex in the way it c... READ MORE
lyrical writing
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... READ MORE
A truly beautiful book
In some ways Heart, Be At Peace by Donal Ryan feels like a series of short stories but the links between all of the characters is very cleverly woven.
... READ MORE
Lyrical and beautiful
Thankfully this book can be read as a stand alone or as a companion piece to The Spinning Heart - a book I've not yet read.
Heart, Be At Peace is yet an... READ MORE
Impressive Follow Up to ‘The Spinning Heart’
‘Heart Be At Peace’ is the follow up/companion book to Donal Ryan’s extraordinarily impressive debut ‘The Spinning Heart’ - the tale of a fractured communi... READ MORE
A magical collage of stories that together to make a glittering artwork.
Donal Ryan’s groundbreaking new novel Heart Be at Peace is a magical collage of stories that together to make a glittering artwork.
The voices all come f... READ MORE
A veritable cornucopia
My goodness, what an emotional ride. Twenty-one stories, all moving towards an utterly unexpected denouement, each one packed with passion and pathos. I wa... READ MORE
Heart bap
Beautifully written, thoughtful and enlightening. I sped through this cover to cover, a really good, honest, hard worked on novel. Enjoyed immensely.
Brilliant
Brilliant novel, each chapter narrated in the voice of a different character. Simple and emotional with clever writing about rural Ireland.
Voice(s) of small-town Ireland
Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy, 2.5ish/5
21 separate but interconnected voices deliver a state of the nation address in post-Cel... READ MORE
Irish village life
An Irish community seen through 21 diverse characters , from Lily (a witch) to Vasya, who lives off-grid and is given food and shelter by another villager.... READ MORE
Sit back and enjoy!
As I started to read, I remembered The Spinning Heart, both in terms of character and the storytelling. I had found the first book hard to put together unl... READ MORE
AN EASY FIVE STARS
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 nove... READ MORE
For fans of A Spinning Heart
Heart, Be at Peace returns to the setting of Ryan’s debut, A Spinning Heart, a decade after many in the town were devastated when the son of the local buil... READ MORE
Captivating story
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 t... READ MORE
Another beautifully written tale about ordinary people living in small-town rural Ireland.
Another beautifully written tale about ordinary people living in small-town rural Ireland. Readers have come to expect Donal Ryan’s gift for creating memo... READ MORE
The struggles of a community through the eyes of individuals
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 beautiful... READ MORE
An Irish village and its characters
An Irish community seen through 21 diverse characters , from Lily (a witch) to Vasya, who lives off-grid and is given food and shelter by another villager.... READ MORE
A beautiful novel
Heart, Be at Peace is the new novel from Donal Ryan, and is a companion piece to his 2012 debut The Spinning Heart. I remember reading that novel and bein... READ MORE
Darkest secrets in a small town
Told from multiple perspectives, this book explores the impact of tensions between friends, families, and generations in a small town.
There’s quite a ... READ MORE
Fabulous writing
This was my first book by Donal Ryan and I was absolutely blown away by his writing and the characterisation within this novel. The book could be read as a... READ MORE
The return
Supposedly a follow up to The Spinning Heart it was clear from the first few pages that it could be read as a standalone.
It wasn’t what I would call a no... READ MORE
The Mosaic
In “Heart Be at Peace,” Donal Ryan tells the story of a small Irish village through 21 chapters, 21 different voices. This tightly knit community is portra... READ MORE
A difficult read
Due to the 21 narrators, I just found this a really difficult read. I read the Orwell fiction winner each and every year and usually love them - this one i... READ MORE
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