Donal Ryan has 4 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 14 narrators, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 6 ratings. The most-rated is From a Low and Quiet Sea.
All We Shall Know
Summary
A breathtaking and redemptive novel from the award-winning and Man Booker-nominated author Donal Ryan. Melody Shee is alone and in trouble. At 33 years old, she finds herself pregnant with the child of a 17-year-old Traveler boy, Martin Toppy, and not by her husband, Pat. Melody was teaching Martin to read, but now he's gone, and Pat leaves, too, full of rage. She's trying to stay in the moment, but the future is looming, while the past won't let her go. It's a good thing that she meets Mary Crothery when she does. Mary is a bold young Traveler woman, and she knows more about Melody than she lets on. She might just save Melody's life. Following the nine months of her pregnancy, All We Shall Know unfolds with emotional immediacy in Melody's fierce, funny, and unforgettable voice as she contends with her choices, past and present.
©2017 Donal Ryan (P)2017 Penguin Audio
From a Low and Quiet Sea
Summary
A new moving novel of three men, each searching for something they have lost. For Farouk, family is all. He has protected his wife and daughter as best he can from the war and hatred that has torn Syria apart. If they stay, they will lose their freedom, will become lesser persons. If they flee, they will lose all they have known of home, for some intangible dream of refuge in some faraway land across the merciless sea. Lampy is distracted; he has too much going on in his small town life in Ireland. He has the city girl for a bit of fun, but she's not Chloe, and Chloe took his heart away when she left him. There's the secret his mother will never tell him. His granddad's little sniping jokes are getting on his wick. And on top of all that, he has a bus to drive; those old folks from the home can't wait all day. The game was always the lifeblood coursing through John's veins: manipulating people for his enjoyment, or his enrichment...or his spite. But it was never enough. The ghost of his beloved brother, and the bitter disappointment of his father, have shadowed him all his life. But now that lifeblood is slowing down, and he's not sure if God will listen to his pleas for forgiveness. Three men, searching for some version of home, their lives moving inexorably toward a reckoning that will draw them all together.
©2018 Donal Ryan (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Thing About December
Summary
Brought to you by Penguin. He heard Daddy one time saying he was a grand quiet boy to Mother when he thought Johnsey couldn’t hear them talking. Mother must have been giving out about him being a gom and Daddy was defending him. He heard the fondness in Daddy’s voice. But you’d have fondness for an auld eejit of a crossbred pup that should have been drowned at birth. 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. Village bullies and scheming land-grabbers stand in his way, no matter where he turns. Set over the course of one year of Johnsey’s life, The Thing About December breathes with his grief, bewilderment, humour and agonising self-doubt. This is a heart-twisting tale of a lonely man struggling to make sense of a world moving faster than he is. Donal Ryan’s award-winning debut, The Spinning Heart, garnered unprecedented acclaim, and The Thing About December confirms his status as one of the best writers of his generation.
©2013 Donal Ryan (P)2020 Penguin Audio
How Much the Heart Can Hold
Summary
A brilliant collection of seven original stories inspired by different concepts of love, by seven award-winning authors. Love is not a singular concept. In this collection, seven award-winning authors explore seven concepts of love: from philautia (self-love) to agape (love for humanity) and from storge (a natural affection for family) to mania (a frenzied, obsessive love): La Douleur Exquise (the pain of unrequited love) 'Before It Disappears' by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan (c) 2016 Pragma (enduring love) 'One More Thing Coming Undone' by D. W. Wilson (c) 2016 Philautia (love for oneself) 'White Wine' by Nikesh Shukla (c) 2016 Mania (obsessive love) 'Magdala, Who Slips Sometimes' by Donal Ryan (c) 2016 Storge (familial love) 'Codas' by Carys Bray (c) 2016 Eros (erotic love) 'The Love Story' by Grace McCleen (c) 2016 Agape (love for humanity) 'The Human World' by Bernardine Evaristo (c) 2016 Seven authors; seven short stories; seven flashes of love. The publication of How Much the Heart Can Hold is heralded by a Sceptre short story competition. The winning story, based on a concept of love, will be published in the paperback edition.
©2016 Carys Bray (P)2016 Hodder & Stoughton