3.5 Stars
One Liner: Mixed feelings

The Aylward women of Nenagh, Tipperary, will always support each other. Their conversations might seem otherwise, but their house is a safe haven from the brutal outside world.
Mary Nana, Eileen, and Saoirse lead a happy life despite everything. Who cares for troubles when you can laugh them off after a dose of drama? The story starts with Saoirse’s birth and takes us through her life’s journey as a child, teen, and woman of the Aylward family.
Set in the rural estate of Tipperary in Ireland, the book comes in a disjointed stream of consciousness from the limited third-person POV of Saoirse.

My Observations:
I didn’t know what to expect, but this book sure was different. The writing style is raw, disjointed, and semi-stream of consciousness narrative. There are no quotes for dialogues. Everything is lumped into the same paragraph. I got used to the style soon enough. It suited the characters.
The character arcs revealed themselves as the story progressed. The main ladies had distinct personalities yet were similar in many ways.
Being literary fiction, the pacing was slow and determined to stay that way. The writing was evocative without being lyrical or heavy.
The heaviness came from the storyline and the characters. Still, it didn’t get overwhelming at any point.
The chapter titles were a treat. They gave clear hints about what would happen in just a word. I began guessing the plot would go based on the chapter titles (and, no, this is not a mystery book).
What didn’t work for me was the shift in focus in the second half and the lack of focus on the title. Sure, the title was used multiple times in the book, but the impact wasn’t there.
There was liberal use of the F-word. While I don’t mind it, I did skim through them when it got too much.
The book belonged to Saoirse mostly, and the title belonged to her mother, Eileen. It seemed as if the book shifted focus at one point, though it came back towards the end.
The story takes place from 1982 to the late 1990s or early 2000s. Yet, it has a strong historical feel throughout (even when mobile phones were used). Since I like historical fiction, it worked well for me.
The ending was rather intriguing and cool. I loved it. It’s not until then that I realized what the phrase, ‘their story begins at an end and ends at a beginning,’ in the blurb meant.

To summarize, The Queen of Dirt Island is the story of three strong women who decided to live their lives on their terms and love each other no matter what.
Thank you, NetGalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, and Doubleday, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

*****
TW: Violence, Suicide, Hints of Sexual Assault, Infidelity

This is a delightful book. It centres around Saoirse, Eileen (her mother), Mary (her grandmother) and later Pearl (her daughter) who live under one roof in an Irish village in a small house ‘swathed and cosseted in love’. These women are bound together by a deep understanding of the togetherness and protection only a family can provide. Over and over, they find themselves at the receiving end of the often cruel and judgmental world that surrounds them, but this cruelty doesn’t really get to them – they are protected by their loyalty and the treasure of the many family stories they share.

As in any family, they are no stranger to inflicting terrible pain onto each other too, but the strong bond, which was formed in their small cottage kitchen - always full of smoke, urgent whispers and endless cups of tea – ensures that forgiveness and love will prevail.
Their story is told in little snippets allowing the reader a glimpse into their lives and as we turn the pages, we get an idea about ‘the idiocy and fear and kindness of all these people and their wounded loving hearts’.

Written in a language that is often poetic and full of beautiful metaphors, this is a book of hope: ‘we can forget changing the past, all we can do is looking after our present moment, planting good seeds in it’. – A sentiment I share, as hopefully will the many readers this book richly deserves.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Transworld Publishers / Penguin Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t say this about many (any?) male writers but Donal Ryan writes women well. I’ve previously read and enjoyed The Spinning Heart, and this new novel goes even deeper into the matriarchal line of a single Irish family. The “baby” Saoirse (so called even after her own daughter is born) is mostly the eyes through which we see the Aylward family’s triumphs and troubles, but she’s oddly a little light on personality: the only issue I had with The Queen of Dirt Island. She’s a passive observer, which I suppose makes sense as she has quiet ambitions to write. Ryan’s Aylwards are funny, loving, and lovely to read about.

I adore Donal Ryan’s writing. It always perfectly captures the unique aspects of life in Ireland despite the seismic changes that have happened in the last century and is always quietly powerful. The Queen of Dirt Island is no different. The story focuses on the strong women in a family in Tipperary who for various reasons have to raise their family without their partners and rely on each other. I would say that this was not my favourite of Donal Ryan’s novels and I was less enthralled by it as I have been with others but I am still in awe of his talent and would read anything he writes.

Having already read Strange Flowers and The Thing About December I was delighted to see that Donal Ryan had a new novel. His writing is wonderful; it is hard to believe that the characters he creates from pen and ink have never lived. He has the ability to show, not tell, that makes his stories complex yet not difficult to understand. I’m glad I have read Strange Flowers as there are some recurring characters – this could be considered a companion piece as it can be read a stand alone, but the narrative picks up following Strange Flowers.
This story is about Ireland and strong women, it is about relationships, families and community. It is inspiring and uplifting and I am glad to have read it.

Oh, Donal. How do you do it? You make my heart leap with joy, rip it apart, nurture it back to strength and then do it all over again. And, with every new book release, I’ll be waiting with open arms to have my heart broken again!

The Queen of Dirt Island begins with a man high on the endorphin rush of becoming a father, yet tragically he is dead before he learns his first child's name.

He leaves behind three generations of Aylward women his mother Mary, his wife Eileen, and his baby daughter Saoirse.

Through the lives of the Aylwards, Ryan explores the concept of family, the things family can be, and all the things it sometimes isn't.

The Aylwards story involves wives and widows, gunrunners and gougers, sinners and saints. It's a story of terrible betrayals and fierce loyalties, isolation and togetherness, transgression, forgiveness, desire, and love.

I loved the style of this book, told in wonderful prose and beautifully constructed, concise clipped chapters, which offer glimpses into the lives of these strong and opinionated Tipperary women. You almost feel you’re sitting around the kitchen table, drinking tea and earwigging on their conversations.

This is a story of the staying power of love and pride and history and family. It is the story of three generations of strong-willed country women who, to outsiders, would appear not to get along at all. But inside their tightly-knit family, they are fierce - they love fiercely, they defend each other fiercely, and they argue fiercely. The Aylward women stick together through whatever life can throw at them.

The Queen of Dirt Island tells the story of four generations of women living together through the years in a small rural Irish town.
The characters love and bond for each other is evident throughout and each of their personalitys, all so strong, seem to jump out from the pages of this beautifully told story.
My favourite character was definitely Nana Mary.
I absolutely loved every bit of this book, so funny yet heartbreaking at the same time. Another classic from Donal Ryan

This was an unusual book, telling the story of four generations of women in rural Ireland.
Very short chapters and very long sentences. An unusual writing style and it took me longer than usual to get through 250 pages.
I did enjoy the book though. It was gentle, sweet and interesting.

I enjoyed this one. A lovely novel about four generations of Aylward women set in Nenagh Co.Tipperary in the 1980’s. It’s beautifully written, a compelling storyline. It tells of loves, losses and conflicts of the family that binds them together. The character development is nicely done. The characters are all very likeable and it keeps you captivated till the end. I couldn’t put it down.
Thanks to #NetGallery #RandomHouseuK #DonalRyan for an arc of #TheQueenOfDirtIsland in exchange for an honest review.

Donal Ryan’s last novel “Strange Flowers” (2020) was voted Novel Of The Year at the Irish Book Awards. Do not be surprised if he does it again with this which I think is even better.
I absolutely loved his debut “The Spinning Heart” (2012) a book voted “Irish Book Of The Decade”. By the winter 2015 edition of NB magazine I was putting it forward as my choice for “Best Book Of The Twenty-First Century So Far”.
“Strange Flowers” took a while for me to get into. I felt the narrative style chosen with its very matter of fact fable or fairy story feel initially held me at bay and it wasn’t until about two-thirds of the way through that I realised the extent this canny author had immersed me into the book. Here, in what is very much a companion piece to “Strange Flowers” (although it works fine as a stand-alone) I was with him right from the start.
It is set in the same location with some of the same characters in a more supporting role this time but moving on a generation as we meet four generations of a family from rural Tipperary. Main character Saoirse is brought up by her mother with daily visits from her grandmother who supports her daughter-in-law widowed at the very beginnings of motherhood. Nana and Mother are the lifeblood of this novel, squabbling yet totally supportive, both have been let down by families in their past but they are not going to do that to the current generation. The last novel was dominated by the superb characterisation of Alexander, who I loved, here it is the relationship between the two strong women who pull the others through the ups and downs of life.
And what I really like about this book is that life just goes on, the community faces some quite shocking events and keeps going. Towards the end two characters who were central in the last book give their perspective to Saoirse in a way in which she thinks they might break out into the old Doris Day hit “Que Sera Sera” but this viewpoint does permeate the lives here. So much is subtle and underplayed and you don’t expect that from what is ostensibly a family saga. Nothing is laboured. Most of the characters would not even understand the relevance of the title, relating to a piece of land held by Mother’s family which has little part to play for most of the novel, other than it informs her personality. The narrative style gives a lightness of touch I wasn’t as aware of in the previous novel.
Characterisation is so rich, Donal Ryan has created a set of characters who are so well developed within a short space of time. He brings a whole community to life. In a way (although the characterisations and location are completely different) it felt to me just a tad reminiscent of what Armistead Maupin was trying to achieve in his “Tales Of The City” series, but I think Donal Ryan’s handling of this is stronger. He carried this off brilliantly in the talking heads approach of “The Spinning Heart” and has achieved it here within a very different narrative style. It is totally involving and very impressive writing.
The Queen Of Dirt Island is published by Transworld Digital as an ebook and Doubleday as a hardback on 18th August 2022 Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

It begins with a man, dead before he learns his first child's name.

He leaves behind three generations of Aylward women - his mother Mary, his wife Eileen, and his baby daughter Saoirse.

Told in very short clipped chapters, we get to know these Tipperary women from Saoirse's birth right up until she's an Aylward woman herself. There are laughs, there are tragedies, there are great losses, great fights and great loves.

Characters from this author's previous novel 'Strange Flowers' crop up again in this one, so while it's not exactly a sequel, it does continue on some of the stories from that book.

This is slightly more hopeful than some of Donal's more recent books, but there are still very bleak parts to it. No matter how well I think I've prepared myself to read a new one, he still manages to catch me out. His writing is gorgeous, and important. The language of rural Ireland needs to be preserved, and he does it so well - I've heard the exact phrase "Childer is aisy shtock to get into" many a time (especially after I had my twins!).

I have to say I didn't love the short chapters, I felt like they jumped from one story to another instead of telling one long tale. But shur maybe that's the point - maybe life is just a collection of stories as opposed to one long tale.

This is the story of three generations of strong-willed country women, who, to outsiders, would appear to not get along at all. But inside their tightly-knit family, they are fierce - they love fiercely, they defend each other fiercely, and they argue fiercely. The Aylward women stick together.

Thanks a million to @penguinrandomhouse for sending me early access on @netgalley, I really appreciate it.

Gentle, ordinary, insular yet full of love.
The author is a magician at drawing you into rural Ireland, with anything outside the village boundaries being big, loud and a bit uncomfortable for the Alyward women, who are entangled in each others lives in a wonderful way. The characters are all fantastically real and the relationships feel true and unforced.
Overall a really lovely read.

The author was capable of giving the idea of a tight-knit perspective or world through his writing. It suited the story’s setting, which was in the (fairly) quiet Irish countryside. Whatever lies beyond this boundary is treated as something foreign, as a new adventure, or as something that feels larger than life.

Throughout the book, it feels that the reader is progressing through the same journey as Saoirse, whose perspective is the one we share for the majority of the book. The occasional switch between her perspective and other characters’ perspectives are apt because it shows us what we need to know to gain a clearer overview of the occurring events.

While we see things through Saoirse’s point-of-view most of the time, it is the two older women, Mother (or Eileen) and Nana (or Mary), who link the four generations of women together. They are the pillars of Saoirse’s world, the ones who will never abandon her or cease their support for her.

There are some returning characters from Strange Flowers, but they are not quite the centre of attention in this book. The four women, Saoirse, Mother, Nana, and Pearl, are given the limelight. Overall, all characters are well fleshed-out and completely imaginable. All of them have their own strengths, flaws, interests, and motivations.

What makes this book tug at my heartstrings is the themes of love and womanhood. The book is focused on the relationships between Saoirse and the people around her, and her journey of self-discovery as she grows older. It illustrates that while everything changes, what remains long lasting and permanent is the love and trust these women have for each other.

‘She was born. Small but healthy, a fortnight early.’

Three days after Saoirse Aylward is born, in Nenagh, Tipperary, her father is killed in a motor vehicle accident. His widow, Eileen and his mother Mary look after Saoirse and look out for each other. And they need to look out for each other: Mary’s sons and Eileen’s brother make their lives difficult at times. What we know of Eileen, Mary, Saoirse and later Saoirse’s daughter Pearl, unfolds in short snippets about the events in their lives, with a focus on some of the challenges they meet. There are several supporting characters, each with their own impact on the story.

Eileen is feisty and determined, as is Mary. Both are fierce protectors of their family and of each other and have high hopes for Saoirse. But Saoirse must find her own path as, in time, will Pearl.

‘But what is it to know a person, anyway? What could be known about them except the outside of them, their
eyes and nose and mouth and the sounds that came out of them, the particular way they had of moving through the air?’

Those who have read ‘Strange Flowers’ will recognise some of the characters in this novel and appreciate the overlap, the sense that history repeats with people facing the same (or similar) issues. The Aylward household is full of love, loyalty and emotion. Complicated characters facing complex issues. We often only receive glimpses into those lives and hints of the issues, but it was enough to take me into the world inhabited by the Aylward women, enough to make me feel like I knew them and to care about their lives.

‘No eyes could see beyond a closed door or into a heart.’

This is the fifth book I have read by Mr Ryan, and he is on my ‘must read’ list.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The Queen of Dirt Island is a story about womanhood. Four generations of women in a small Irish community living ordinary lives but extraordinary characters. Beautiful storytelling, graceful narrative. I loved every word and will seek out more of this author's work. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

I have read all of Donal Ryan's novels so was thrilled to receive an ARC of his latest book. It did not disappoint. The story focuses on multiple generations of the Aylward family and the powerful love they share with each other that bolsters them through the challenges they face as a family and the judgement of the small minds so common place in rural villages. The author has a beautiful style of story telling that is powerful, funny and heart breaking at times. The story is set in a rural area of Co Tipperary in Ireland that I am very familiar with so the mannerisms , humour and mentality is absolutely spot on. The connections with characters from his previous books is woven in wonderfully and fits perfectly. If you are a fan of Strange Flowers you will be delighted to meet some familiar characters. I would absolutely recommend this as I have his other efforts.

What an outstanding read! I read and enjoyed Donal Ryan’s The Thing About December years ago but hadn’t read anything from him since. The title and synopsis of this book really caught my attention, and I’m so glad I decided to read it.

We follow Saoirse, her mother and her grandmother, who live in small house in county Tipperary. Each chapter is just two pages long, so I raced through the pages, always wanting to know what happened next. The women are depicted superbly, despite the shortness of the chapters, I felt like I’d spent a long time with them. There’s such compassion and hope in Ryan’s writing, so beautiful yet not overdone - several passages brought me to a pause.

I think this is a very strong contender for Irish Book of the Year. I have to say, it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read.

Will post on socials/retailers upon publication.

I had heard a lot of good things about Donal Ryan’s writing, so was delighted to be granted an ARC of this multigenerational story. The ‘Queen of Dirt Island’ of the title is Eileen Aylward who had been widowed three days after the birth of her daughter Saoirse. Two other important females in the Aylward clan are Eileen’s granddaughter Pearl as well as her mother-in-law Mary. These four women live together in 1980s rural Tipperary and negotiate loss, prejudice and hard times partly together, partly alongside each other. There are some male characters on the fringes of the novel, but the main focal point of the novel is the character of Saoirse and her physical, spiritual and psychological growth. Beautifully written, the only issue I had was with the extremely short chapters which to me do not fully support the nuanced, in-depth character analyses that are undertaken here. Overall, however, this is a highly recommended contemporary read. I am grateful to the publishers and to NetGalley for the free ARC that allowed me to produce this honest and unbiased review.

This was a fantastically unique story following the lives of 4 women and their love for each other.

It was exceptionally written and I have never read a book like this - highly recommended!

Now that we are only a month away from the publication of The Queen of Dirt Island, I think it's time for everyone to get really hyped that one of our greatest writers is about to make everyone fall in love with his writing and his characters all over again. As a disclaimer, I am a huge Donal Ryan fan and he can do no wrong. Having said that, I think he REALLY got this one right. Queen of Dirt Island has more of the gorgeous things that make Ryan's work sing - a certain tenderness, a feeling that is both happy and sad, an unflinchingly generous and thoughtful portrait of all the different walks of life who might inhabit rural Ireland. I love that in his books, small Tipperary towns are not the whole world, but the whole world and it's spectrum of human emotion can be seen and felt and heard from these communities. He returns to similar themes and characters time and again, and maybe this novel didn't grab me in the way The Spinning Heart first did, but he does still succeed in making something fresh and new each time.

In this novel, the two page vignettes give us far reaching and deeply moving, yet fleeting access to a life, glimpses of a woman named Saoirse and the fierce women around her. I was surprised by this format and thought it would feel disjointed but makes it quite dreamy, and actually makes for a great summer read as you can dip in and out easily, but if you read it straight through you end up reading it faster and getting more sucked in.

Saoirse feels like quite a passive character in comparison to her matriarch grandmother and capable, fighter mother. She moves through life as an observer, even of quite traumatic experiences and treated as unlucky or cursed because her birth is always spoken about alongside her father's death just a few days later. At first, I honestly found this a little jarring and I wonder will readers find this difficult if they identify with any issues that seem to be glossed over at first. However Ryan is a very sensitive writer and respectful writer of female characters in particular. This sense of remove or lack of immediacy really makes sense and pays off by the end of the book when Saoirse begins to take more ownership of her life and her story, reminding me once again to sit back and trust that you're in the hands of a master at work.