‘Heart, Be at Peace' is the perfect title for this Irish gem
Donal Ryan has set his novels chiefly in and around his native Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland, filling them with characters whose stories become the background of subsequent books. 'Heart, Be at Peace,' winner of last year's award for Irish Book of the Year, however, is a sequel. It picks up from his first novel, 'The Spinning Heart,' a short, brilliant work set in the aftermath of the collapse of the property boom of 2008. Set about a decade after that book ended, 'Heart' explores how contemporary problems — social media, drugs — affect this small town. Like its predecessor, the story emerges gradually, as each character contributes a confessional strand to the tangled connections among them.
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