From the Booker longlisted author, and an Irish Times No.1 bestseller - a searing, jubilant novel about four generations of women and the stories that bind them.
'Beautiful, compassionate ... Donal Ryan at his inimitable best.' MAGGIE O'FARRELL
'One of the finest novelists writing today... a haunting, exquisite masterpiece.' RACHEL JOYCE
___________
This is a story about family, about all of the things it should be - and sometimes isn't.
In Nenagh, County Tipperary, four generations of Aylward women live and love. The head of the family, Nana, is a woman who has buried two sons and whose life has been the family farm. Her daughter-in-law, Eileen, is estranged from her own parents, having 'shamed' them and given birth to Saoirse. And then there's Saoirse herself, eavesdropping on lives she cannot comprehend. It is only when they must battle for the inheritance of Dirt Island - a narrow strip of land adjacent to Eileen's childhood home - that they truly understand the roots that bind their lives together.
_________
'The prose drips like honey off a spoon' SUNDAY TIMES
'Beautifully poised, sad, poetic and human....I loved every single line.' IAN RANKIN
'A generous mosaic of a novel about the staying power of love and pride and history and family' COLUM McCANN
'His paragraphs are unnoticeably beautiful, his heart always on show' ANNE ENRIGHT
'Endlessly surprising and incredibly moving' DAVID NICHOLLS
'A life-enhancing talent' SEBASTIAN BARRY
'I would struggle to think of any other Irish author working today who writes with as much compassion as Donal Ryan' LOUISE O'NEILL
Autorentext
Donal Ryan
Klappentext
The Aylward women of Nenagh, Tipperary, are mad about each other, but you wouldn't always think it. You'd have to know them to know - in spite of what the neighbours might say about raised voices and dramatic scenes - that their house is a place of peace, filled with love, a refuge from the sadness and cruelty of the world.
Their story begins at an end and ends at a beginning. It involves wives and widows, gunrunners and gougers, sinners and saints. It's a story of terrible betrayals and fierce loyalties, of isolation and togetherness, of transgression, forgiveness, desire, and love. About all the things family can be and all the things it sometimes isn't.
From the prize-winning author of Strange Flowers and The Spinning Heart, The Queen of Dirt Island is an uplifting celebration of fierce, loyal love and the powerful stories that bind generations of women together.