Donal Ryan's now-successful debut, "The Spinning Heart." (Doubleday UK)
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Every rejected and unpublished novelist harbors a secret and implausible fantasy: One day, not only will she (or he) be published, but the sleeping literary world will also awaken and recognize her (or his) genius and pile accolades and prizes upon her (or him).
This week, Irish novelist Donal Ryan became that writer. His debut novel “The Spinning Heart,” rejected 47 different times by publishers (or 50 in some accounts), was one of a baker’s dozen of books chosen for the longlist of one of the world’s most prestigious (and lucrative) literary prizes, the Man Booker.
“I was literally speechless [when I heard],” Ryan told the Limerick Leader. “I was getting phone calls from people and I couldn’t speak.”
“The Spinning Heart” is actually Ryan’s second attempt to write a novel. According to the Independent of Dublin, it was “plucked out of the slush pile” by an intern working at the appropriately named Lilliput Press in Dublin. That intern then “raved about it” to publisher Anthony Farrell who, in another lucky twist of fate, actually listened to the intern and read the manuscript.
“The Spinning Heart” is told from the points of view of 21 people struggling to survive the modern day Great Recession (as we call it on this side of the pond) in a rural village in southwest Ireland.
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“I was literally speechless [when I heard],” Ryan told the Limerick Leader. “I was getting phone calls from people and I couldn’t speak.”
“The Spinning Heart” is actually Ryan’s second attempt to write a novel. According to the Independent of Dublin, it was “plucked out of the slush pile” by an intern working at the appropriately named Lilliput Press in Dublin. That intern then “raved about it” to publisher Anthony Farrell who, in another lucky twist of fate, actually listened to the intern and read the manuscript.
“The Spinning Heart” is told from the points of view of 21 people struggling to survive the modern day Great Recession (as we call it on this side of the pond) in a rural village in southwest Ireland.
More
1 comment:
I just wrote up my post on the Man Booker long list and when I saw that this book was on it, had no idea that it had been rejected so many times. It boggles my mind how a book can be turned down a number of times and then be one of thirteen up for the coveted Man Booker prize.
-Dilettantish Reader
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