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A Slanting of the Sun
A Slanting of the Sun: Stories | Donal Ryan
4 posts | 5 read | 1 reading | 2 to read
Donal Ryan's short stories pick up where his acclaimed novels The Spinning Heart and The Thing About December left off, dealing with dramas set in motion by loneliness and displacement and revealing stories of passion and desire where less astute observers might fail to detect the humanity that roils beneath the surface. Sometimes these dramas are found in ordinary, mundane situations; sometimes they are triggered by a fateful encounter or a tragic decision. At the heart of these stories, crucially, is how people are drawn to each other and cling to love when and where it can be found. In a number of the these stories, emotional bonds are forged by traumatic events caused by one of the characters - between an old man and the frightened young burglar left to guard him while his brother is beaten; between another young man and the mother of a girl whose death he caused when he crashed his car; between a lonely middle-aged shopkeeper and her assistant. Disconnection and new discoveries pervade stories involving emigration (an Irish priest in war-torn Syria) or immigration (an African refugee in Ireland). Some of the stories are set in the same small town in rural Ireland as the novels, with names that will be familiar to Ryan's readers. In haunting prose, Donal Ryan has captured the brutal beauty of the human heart in all its failings, hopes and quiet triumphs. From the Trade Paperback edition.
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Dogearedcopy
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Pickpick

At first, I thought this was interconnected or related to ‘The Spinning Heart‘ and ‘The Thing About December‘ which confused me until I double-checked: This is a standalone collection of shorts set (mostly) in Tipperary, Ireland. Each story holds a tragic note paradoxically couched in beautiful almost lyrical prose. Two stories had me gasp, but all are memorable. Wayne Farrell did an admirable job of narrating all POVs regardless of age or gender

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BarbaraBB
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Real powerful stories. Most of the main characters are rather cruel people; they kill, steal, offend and yet you stick with them. A killer can also be tired. A nurse who abuses her patients is also a mother, struggling with the alienation of her growing children.
I don't think I'll ever forget the priest in Syria, who teaches young muslims how to play hurling, or the girl who is being discriminated by a woman who tries to be nice.

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Onioons
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#book3 of #deweysreadathon and the snacks are out! Donal Ryan's short stories capture human nature in a very special way. Always so quotable... "There was a woman he'd have like to marry but he knew no way to cover the ground between them and nor did she"... "The universe was once a dot, laden with the weight of everything that would ever be"... "He never knew his own soul until that moment; I saw the knowing descend on him" #readathon

charl08 Loved this book. I'm mad he doesn't have a bigger back catalogue though! 8y
Onioons @charl08 I know, I'm going to wait awhile to read his latest. Pacing myself! 8y
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Onioons
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#day7 #catchingup #somethingborrowed my current library haul is perfect for Autumn afternoons in front of the fire #booktober #neverendingtbr

DreesReads And I just sat through a soccer game in 95 degree weather. My poor kid and his team played--2 men down. 8y
Onioons Well done him! Hope you were able to sneak some reading in too 😊 8y
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