Of Donal Ryan’s books, I’ve only read so far The Spinning Heart. Like that novel, Heart, Be at Peace employs a multitude of voices to tell of events in a western Irish town, going back about ten years. Some of these characters are the same as in The Spinning Heart, but it’s ten years later.
Underlying the story is a series of tragedies. Pokey owned a contracting business until he ran out, leaving his men unemployed and cheated of benefits and his business unfinished all over town. Having served his time, Pokey is back and using the front of a language school to launder drug money. Frank, an old man, was murdered by the gang of drug dealers, and his murderer is also out and trying to keep a low profile. Frank’s son Bobby has done his best to rebuild the contracting business that Pokey abandoned and employ all the workers.
We first meet Bobby, who secretly visits his dying mother-in-law and is stressed because his friend Seanie’s wife has been sending around a photo of what appears to be Bobby leaving a whorehouse while the boys were on a stag party in Amsterdam. Bobby is also stressed about the amount of drug activity in the area.
Then Josie Burke, Pokey’s father, tells about Pokey’s return from prison and his attempts to make amends. But law enforcement starts grilling him about Pokey’s language school, telling him that he himself is listed as the company director.
Lily was trained as a witch, or maybe an herbalist. She is an old lady who has long been estranged from her family. Then her teenage granddaughter Millicent begins visiting her. Lily adores Millicent. But Millicent falls in love at 17 with Augie, a local drug dealer.
Vasya is one of the men driven out of work by Pokey’s original betrayal. He has been homeless, but Frank occasionally left food and other items at his camp for him until he was killed. Then Pokey returns and hires Vasya to ferry drugs across the river.
Réattin is Seanie’s wife. She is still traumatized by her son Dylan having been kidnapped when he was two. But she is jealous of Bobby and his wife Triona even though Triona was her first customer when she opened her accountancy business. So, she is happy to circulate Seanie’s photo of Bobby.
Timmy isn’t quite all there ever since Mickey Briars arrived on the work site after Pokey decamped because he found out his builder’s pension hadn’t been paid into and hit Timmy with a shovel. But Mickey has tried to make up for it by spending time with Timmy and telling him stories. Mickey is upset about all the drug dealing. I forgot about Mickey until the end of the novel, when one of his stories becomes significant.
And so on. Ryan creates some vivid characters, only there are so many of them that I wished I’d taken some notes (and remembered them better from The Spinning Heart). Because aside from some obvious main characters or some stories that made the strongest impression on me, someone would be mentioned again and I’d struggle to remember what I knew about that character.
I am not making a criticism, though. There are some rough events in this novel, but overall it ends on a hopeful note. I liked it more the more I read, and the ending was touching.
