The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan

Bobby Mahon is waiting for Frank, his father, to die. Frank is grimly, resentfully hanging on to life in a dark cottage on the outskirts of a small town in Ireland. Bobby has more problems; recently laid off as foreman for a grasping local builder, it turns out that his contributions haven't been made and he isn't entitled to anything more than state unemployment. Out of work, sad and angry, Bobby stands for post-Celtic Tiger Ireland, in its despair and darkness.

Donal Ryan, like Anne Enright in The Gathering, paints a bleak portrait of a country let down by the promise of an economic boom. Outside the town a 'ghost estate' lurks, full of incomplete houses. Only two unfortunates live there, lured by the dream of a new community but lost in the reality of emptiness and unfinished homes.

Ryan's novel, more so than Enright's, captures the hopelessness of the Irish recession. His townspeople feel powerless; in one moving chapter a man known for his sunny disposition confesses to overwhelming depression,  that he dreams of walking into the local lake. Here we have victims of broken promises and futile dreams. Yet the novel contains black humour and moving glimpses of love; both the title and the last lines suggest that Ryan's interest lies in the impact of Ireland's economic woes on the bonds of kinship and love in the country's communities.

The Spinning Heart's powerful originality comes not just from the subject matter but from the mode of telling. Each chapter is from a different narrative perspective; stories thread through them, and, while no teller is returned to, characters recur in each others' stories, reflecting, I suppose, the tapestry of connections in a small town in the Irish countryside. Each teller has a distinctive voice and Ryan creates sympathy for virtually all of his creations,  even the seemingly irredeemable Frank. It is Bobby who tells the first story and seems to be the centre of all the connected tales. The Spinning Heart does have a narrative drive which propels the reader through the novel. There is a subplot about an abducted child which works less well than the main thread about Bobby;  this does, however,  add an urgency to the plot which the novel might otherwise lack.

The Spinning Heart was published in Ireland in October 2012 and won the Irish Book Of The Year award, voted for by the public. It's also been included in the 2013 Waterstone's Eleven, which I truly hope will bring it to a wide audience in the UK. Ryan's sad, lyrical, bleak and occasionally funny novel deserves these accolades and more. It's a novel which feels modern and classic at once, recalling both Roddy Doyle and WB Yeats and introducing a unique voice in contemporary fiction. I can't recommend it highly enough.

My thanks to the publishers,  who provided me with a review copy via Net Galley. The Spinning Heart will be published in the UK by Doubleday Ireland on 27 Jun 2013.

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