Donal Ryan

Burning Books Ireland

Author Donal Ryan talks to Books Ireland editor Ruth McKee about empathy, the mystery at the heart of writing, Doris Lessing, and having a crush on Sylvia Plath—as he reveals which books he would save if his house was on fire.
Donal Ryan is an acclaimed Irish novelist and short story writer, with best-selling books including The Spinning Heart (2012), which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, The Thing About December (2013), All We Shall Know (2016), and Strange Flowers (2020). He is the first Irish winner of the prestigious Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature for his fifth novel, From A Low And Quiet Sea (2018).

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