Heart, Be at Peace

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

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

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

[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

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

This beautiful and moving novel, told in 21 voices, serves up heartbreak and hope in equal measure.

The Lady

Ryan gives each a distinct voice and a rhythm to their thoughts

New Statesman

Compulsive

TLS

My book of the year is Donal Ryan's Heart, Be at Peace … Is it possible to say a work of fiction is true? Well, this is and once again, it's a book that stays with you well beyond the last page

Kit de Waal

Donal Ryan's Heart, Be at Peace is enthralling. He captures such a range of emotion, defiance, eloquence, crudity and dark humour, in brilliant prose that makes him stand out

Diarmaid Ferriter

Every novel by Donal Ryan extends his deserved reputation. I adored his Heart, Be at Peace.

Joseph O'Connor

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

The vibrancy, the dirt-under-the-nails intimacies he unearths, the recognition of primal forces in building or sundering family and/or community relationships, the susceptibilities of the unhappy and unfulfilled are brought together in a way that inspires and intimidates in equal measure . . For me, [Donal Ryan] is the greatest current Irish writer

Irish Mail on Sunday, John Boyne

This wonderful, upliftingly good, this tremendously well-constructed novel secures [Donal Ryan's] place at the very top table of Irish novelists. Probably among all novelists working in English, too. Yes, it is that good.

Irish Examiner

Ryan’s sentences gleam, peeling the calloused skin of machismo to expose the vulnerabilities of his men, cutting against our expectations . . . Heart, Be at Peace moves with the lightness and felicity of a story collection, sifting relationships built on sand, pummeled by tides of human folly

New York Times Book Review

[A] powerful novel . . . The collective effect of [the characters'] intimate, first-person narratives is that of a confessional, revealing the psyche of a country going through a traumatic change.

New Yorker