Author and Limerick university lecturer Donal Ryan wins Novel of the Year

BESTSELLING author Donal Ryan has won the Eason Novel of the Year prize at the 2024 An Post Irish Book Awards for his novel, Heart, Be At Peace.

Originally from Nenagh, Co Tipperary, Mr Ryan now lives in Limerick and lectures in creative writing at the University of Limerick.

The sequel to his multi award-winning book, The Spinning Heart, this novel tells the stories of people in a small town in rural Ireland who have “weathered the storms of economic collapse and are looking towards the future”.

“Some things can send a heart spinning; others will crack it in two…” reads the blurb of his eighth book.

In a previous interview with Limerick Live, Mr Ryan shared with reporter Manon Gilbart: “The Spinning Heart felt unfinished, I never felt happy with the way it ended. Every time I’ve done a reading in the last 12 years, somebody asks how characters are getting on.

READ MORE: Donal Ryan: 'Mam was great. She was brilliant, really sharp - she could cut you in two'

“People speak about them as though they're real people. I had an idea for years, so I decided I'd write the book with the same characters and describe their lives 10 years later. It felt as though I was writing the wrongs that I'd left extant.”

Other authors who won big at the ceremony in the Convention Centre, Dublin, on November 27 included Sally Rooney, author of Normal People, who picked up the coveted Author of the Year title, Johnny Sexton, who received the Eason Sports Book of the Year award for his memoir Obsessed, and Graham Norton, whose book Frankie was deemed the Ireland AM Popular Fiction Book of the Year.

The overall winner of the competition - the recipient of the An Post Irish Book of the Year 2024 prize - will be revealed in a one-hour special on RTÉ One, hosted by Oliver Callan, on Thursday, December 19. 

Donal Ryan previously won the esteemed title with The Spinning Heart, which was also voted Irish Book of the Decade.