"A concise, radiant, measured and integral work... This is one of those beautiful, serious, fully living novels that make you laugh out loud... Donal Ryan is a magus of a writer. He has such magic at his disposal to tell a story... This is a novel to replenish the reader's heart and spruce the reader's soul, although it also makes one doubt we possess such signal things. It's a force of nature, high artifice and the product of a life-enhancing talent." -- Sebastian Barry Guardian "Ryan writes from the rural heartland in prose that always pushes for the truth of things... His characters are large-hearted people in a small-minded world... He underplays the ironic distance and pulls our sympathies tight. And he tells a great story. His paragraphs are unnoticeably beautiful, his heart always on show, and he writes with a social accuracy that is devastating... There are ... not many who hit the sweet spot of the Irish tradition as Donal Ryan does here." -- Anne Enright Observer "Painfully moving ... Ryan writes with absolute confidence, balancing emotion, surprise and ambiguity... In his descriptions of the conflicts between stunted young men and their domineering parents he recalls the great John McGahern ... he is indisputably carving his own terrain with these short, fierce books that strike at the heart of what it has meant to be Irish in recent times ... Ryan's work has set a benchmark to which other writers will aspire." -- John Boyne The Irish Times "Clear-eyed and moving." -- Belinda McKeon Irish Independent "Powerful ... Ryan is clearly committed to his subject and possesses the insight and empathy to illuminate the heart of the matter." -- Claire Kilroy Financial Times