
The Spinning Heart
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Wayne Farrell
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By:
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Donal Ryan
About this listen
Winner - The Guardian First Book Award
Winner of two Irish Book Awards - Newcomer of The Year and Book of The Year
Longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize
In the aftermath of Ireland's financial collapse, dangerous tensions surface in an Irish town. As violence flares, the characters face a battle between public persona and inner desires. Through a chorus of unique voices, each struggling to tell their own kind of truth, a single authentic tale unfolds.
The Spinning Heart speaks for contemporary Ireland like no other novel. Wry, vulnerable, all-too human, it captures the language and spirit of rural Ireland and with uncanny perception articulates the words and thoughts of a generation. Technically daring and evocative of Patrick McCabe and J.M. Synge, this novel of small-town life is witty, dark and sweetly poignant.
Donal Ryan's brilliantly realized debut announces a stunning new voice in fiction.
©2012 Donal Ryan (P)2013 Steerforth Press LLCListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Meryl Streep’s performance of Colm Tóibín's acclaimed portrait of Mary is hailed by the New York Times Book Review as “an ideal audiobook,” presenting the three-time Academy Award-winner in “yet another great role.” Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Colm Tóibín's The Testament of Mary presents Mary as a solitary older woman still seeking to understand the events that become the narrative of the New Testament and the foundation of Christianity. In the ancient town of Ephesus, Mary lives alone, years after her son's crucifixion. She has no interest in collaborating with the authors of the Gospel. They are her keepers, providing her with food and shelter and visiting her regularly. She does not agree that her son is the Son of God; nor that his death was "worth it"; nor that the "group of misfits he gathered around him, men who could not look a woman in the eye," were holy disciples. This woman who we know from centuries of paintings and scripture as the docile, loving, silent, long-suffering, obedient, worshipful mother of Christ becomes a tragic heroine with the relentless eloquence of Electra or Medea or Antigone, in a portrait so vivid and convincing that our image of Mary will be forever transformed.
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hated it
- By bibliophile on 06-14-14
By: Colm Toibin
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The Thing about December
- By: Donal Ryan
- Narrated by: Wayne Farrell
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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While the Celtic Tiger rages, and greed becomes the norm, Johnsey Cunliffe desperately tries to hold on to the familiar, even as he loses those who all his life have protected him from a harsh world. Following the deaths first of his father and then his mother, Johnsey inherits the family farm, and a healthy bank account, both of which he proves incapable of managing on his own. Village bullies and scheming land-grabbers stand in his way, no matter where he turns.
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Inner Thoughts of a Mentally Challenged Man
- By asassyvic on 01-21-15
By: Donal Ryan
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Solar Bones
- By: Mike McCormack
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
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It is All Souls Day, and the spirit of Marcus Conway sits at his kitchen table and remembers. In flowing, relentless prose, Conway recalls his life in rural Ireland: as a boy and man, father, husband, citizen. His ruminations move from childhood memories of his father's deftness with machines to his own work as a civil engineer, from transformations in the local economy to the tidal wave of global financial collapse. Conway's thoughts go still further, outward to the vast systems of time and history that hold us all.
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Life
- By Nicole Del Sesto on 09-19-17
By: Mike McCormack
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Milkman
- By: Anna Burns
- Narrated by: Bríd Brennan
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes "interesting" - the last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed, and to be noticed is dangerous. Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is a story of inaction with enormous consequences.
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Like the writing, not the audio issues
- By Criticalthinker on 12-31-18
By: Anna Burns
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Twist
- A Novel
- By: Colum McCann
- Narrated by: Colum McCann
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Anthony Fennell, an Irish journalist and playwright, is assigned to cover the underwater cables that carry the world’s information. The sum of human existence—words, images, transactions, memes, voices, viruses—travels through the tiny fiber-optic tubes. But sometimes the tubes break, at an unfathomable depth.
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So happy he’s still writing fiction
- By Franki on 03-31-25
By: Colum McCann
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Time of the Child
- By: Niall Williams
- Narrated by: Dermot Crowley
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from the town. His eldest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father’s shadow, and remains there, having missed one chance at love – and passed up another offer of marriage from an unsuitable man. But in the Advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy’s lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care.
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A slower start than This Is Happiness but then….wonderful.
- By Georgia Burns on 12-01-24
By: Niall Williams
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The Bee Sting
- A Novel
- By: Paul Murray
- Narrated by: Heather O’Sullivan, Barry Fitzgerald, Beau Holland, and others
- Length: 26 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under—but Dickie is spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife, Imelda, is selling off her jewelry on eBay and half-heartedly dodging the attention of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, while their teenage daughter, Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge drink her way through her final exams. As for twelve-year-old PJ, he’s on the brink of running away.
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Bone Clocks meets Jonathan Franzen
- By Cranson on 10-26-23
By: Paul Murray
What listeners say about The Spinning Heart
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- Sue H
- 01-26-25
Outstanding!
Great listen. A tour through the Celtic Tiger aftermath reaching deep into the human condition.
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- Anonymous User
- 10-03-22
Excellent
best book I've read in years. wonderful. I'm reading everything offered by Ryan. Good day, Sir
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- Eleanor lusignan
- 01-17-22
Great talent
I thought the writing was excellent !
The narration was also excellent !
The story was good but depressing. I look forward to
reading his next book.
El
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- Kyra
- 02-06-25
voices
I wish the narrating voice could be more in line with the different male and female characters. A bit confusing on the outstart.
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- Jonathan
- 09-17-16
A surprising book that builds like the tide
What did you love best about The Spinning Heart?
Each character is profiled and it builds into a mosaic that gradually becomes clear
What does Wayne Farrell bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
The narration perfectly complements the story, which is quite complex yet made simple by the narration.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The end came too soon
Any additional comments?
Terrific book, if this is a first novel we can expect great things in the future.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kathryn
- 10-13-15
Utterly, heartbreakingly brilliant
I was moved to tears half the time when I was reading this book. Listening to it was an even more shattering experience. It couldn't have been more perfectly narrated. Bravo.
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2 people found this helpful
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- LilMissMolly
- 07-05-14
Mesmerizing Irish Brogue
Any additional comments?
The Spinning Heart is an excellent collection of 21 stories surrounding the collapse of the Irish economy in County Tipperary. The main character is Bobby Mahon, a young married man who is upset after getting laid off of work at a construction company. He especially feels cheated by his boss, Pokey Burke, because he and all other laid off employees lost their pensions.
Each chapter is a different resident providing commentary on recent events in the town, their neighbors, their businesses, the collapse of Burke’s company, the disappearance of a small child from daycare, and Mahon’s arrest for the murder of his father.
Wayne Farrell's narration is outstanding. He has 21 distinct voices, one for each of the residents of Tipperary. I was fully immersed in Farrell’s narration that I felt like I was listening to 21 different voice actors. Simply put, Farrell’s Irish brogue is mesmerizing!
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4 people found this helpful
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- Jennifer W. Weyler
- 11-19-16
Tremendous story and narration
This is a gripping story of an Irish community during the post 2008 recession/depression. The story is told from the perspective of all different narrators in the community. Every chapter reveals something new about both the plot and the other characters. Each narrator gets only one chapter. The result is a tightly fit puzzle of brilliant description and exposition. I ended the book wanting to go back and re-listen all over again. The narrator is top notch, using varied voices to pull you into each character's story. The plot is perfectly played out and the narrator makes it perfect.
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- BB
- 01-16-19
My new favorite book!
I was hesitant to read this because the only Irish writers I’ve read (all amazing) were so depressing! But my book club chose this and so I did - WOW! I was blown away! Not that it’s a happy, uplifting book (there’s plenty of sadness and despair!) but there’s so much MORE than that. In addition, the choice to structure this around multiple viewpoints (no repeat narrators) was brilliant and it didn’t matter at all if you were able to keep track of relationships between characters (author did an amazing job w that). I did find a “prezi” diagram on line that visualizes it though.
The language was fantastic - it’s like poetry !
It’s the first book that I’ve ever read where I want to listen to it immediately again after finishing.
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1 person found this helpful
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- G. Courtney
- 01-18-16
Disappointed
I really wanted to like this book. The dialogue was great and I loved all of the old Irish expressions. There were too many characters to follow, so I had to create a chart to show the connections. Then the story abruptly ended.
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1 person found this helpful