LIMERICK writer Donal Ryan’s debut novel ‘The Spinning Heart’ has been longlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize.
The author, a native of Burgess in North Tipperary who lives in Castletroy with his wife Anne Marie and two young children, is one of three Irish writers on this year’s longlist alongside Colm Tóibín and Colum McCann.
The Spinning Heart, published in October last year, was also named the 2012 Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards.
The book is one of 13 novels that were selected from a total of 151 entries.
The Spinning Heart is set in a fictional village but mentions a number of North Tipperary placenames such as Nenagh and Roscrea.
The book is centered on the social and human effects of Ireland’s recession and was the flagship release for Doubleday Ireland in a new co-publishing venture with Dublin publisher Lilliput Press.
The novel, set against a backdrop of surfacing tension and violence in a small rural town, focuses on the kidnapping of a child and murder of a man.
Donal Ryan, who works with the National Employment Rights Authority in Shannon, was described as “the most interesting author I have read in some time” by Anthony Farrell of Lilliput Press.
