The stunning new novel from the Booker Prize-listed, bestselling author of Strange Flowers and The Queen of Dirt Island

'Beautiful...a book full of love and hope, more needed in these days than ever' Kit de Waal

'I am blown away by the ambition and scope of this exquisite piece of writing...sublime in both its sentiment and beauty' Rachel Joyce

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...

Told in twenty-one voices, Heart, be at Peace is a heartfelt, lyrical novel that 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'.

*****

PRAISE FOR DONAL RYAN:

'One of the finest novelists writing today.' RACHEL JOYCE

'His paragraphs are unnoticeably beautiful, his heart always on show' ANNE ENRIGHT

'Endlessly surprising and incredibly moving' DAVID NICHOLLS

'A life-enhancing talent' SEBASTIAN BARRY

'I would struggle to think of any other Irish author working today who writes with as much compassion as Donal Ryan' LOUISE O'NEILL

'Beautiful, compassionate...Donal Ryan at his inimitable best.' MAGGIE O'FARRELL

'Beautifully poised, sad, poetic and human....I loved every single line.' IAN RANKIN

'The prose drips like honey off a spoon' SUNDAY TIMES

About the Author
Donal Ryan is an award-winning author from Nenagh, County Tipperary, whose work has been published in over twenty languages to major critical acclaim. The Spinning Heart won the Guardian First Book Award, the EU Prize for Literature (Ireland), and Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards; it was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize, and was voted 'Irish Book of the Decade'. His fourth novel, From a Low and Quiet Sea, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2018, and won the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature. His novel, Strange Flowers, was voted Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, and was a number one bestseller, as was his most recent novel The Queen of Dirt Island, which was also shortlisted for Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. Donal lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. He lives with his wife Anne Marie and their two children just outside Limerick City.

Reviews
Donal Ryan's writing has earned him a place among the greatest names in Irish literature and this lyrical novel speaks to the very heart of modern Irish society * Irish Times *
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 *
Any new book by Donal Ryan is something to celebrate and Heart, Be at Peace is no exception. He is a powerful story teller immersed in all the intricacies of human relationships, and once again he brings us a novel with a heart as big as the community he describes. Clear-eyed, deeply ambitious, sharp, lyrical as always, by turns funny and terrifying, Donal Ryan shines his light in the darkest corners, and finds something for us to love. I am blown away by the ambition and scope of this exquisite piece of writing: Heart, Be at Peace is sublime in both its sentiment and beauty. * Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry *
This is Donal Ryan at his most assured, moving deftly between voices, fully inhabiting every character, breaking his poor readers' hearts. Every chapter's a tiny epic. Every sentence seems to sing. Ryan's writing is both of the moment and utterly timeless in its ability to capture the essence of what it means to be alive, to love, to grieve and cling to hope. * Jan Carson, author of The Raptures *
Ryan gives each a distinct voice and a rhythm to their thoughts * New Statesman *
Compulsive * TLS *



Book Information
ISBN 9781529940138
Author Donal Ryan
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint Doubleday
Publisher Transworld Publishers Ltd
Weight(grams) 221g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 130mm * 16mm