All We Shall Know
Donal Ryan
From the twice Man Booker longlisted author of From a Low and Quiet Sea
'Poetic, powerful and heart-rending' THE TIMES
'An exquisite account of womanhood, friendship, prejudice and tradition that is both intimate in scale and awesome in achievement' IRISH INDEPENDENT
Melody Shee is alone and in trouble. Her husband doesn't take her news too well. She can't tell her father yet because he's a good man and this could break him. She's trying to stay in the moment, but the future is looming - larger by the day - while the past won't let her go. What she did to Breedie Flynn all those years ago still haunts her.
It's a good thing that she meets Mary Crothery when she does. Mary is a young Traveller woman, and she knows more about Melody than she lets on. She might just save Melody's life.
_________
'A joy to read, for all that it breaks your heart' INDEPENDENT
'One of the finest writers working in Ireland today ... worthy of Greek Drama' GUARDIAN
'A stunning piece of work, utterly truthful and emotionally powerful' JOSEPH O'CONNOR
'Work of genius ... I was entranced by it. Buckled by it' SEBASTIAN BARRY
Product Details
About Donal Ryan
Reviews for All We Shall Know
The Times
A joy to read, for all that it breaks your heart
Independent
One of the finest writers working in Ireland today ... worthy of Greek drama
Guardian
An exquisite account of womanhood, friendship, prejudice and tradition that is both intimate in scale and awesome in achievement
Irish Independent
Work of genius ... I was entranced by it. Buckled by it.
Sebastian Barry A stunning piece of work, utterly truthful and emotionally powerful
Joseph O’Connor So beautifully written and so full of compassion and humanity that I wanted to set fire to my laptop and never write again.
Liz Nugent
Irish Independent Books of the Year
Donal Ryan's new book is an enthrallingly impassioned and compassionate read, ferocious but humane. All We Shall Know acknowledges the acts of vicious self-destruction the human heart is capable of, but does not accept the irreparability of such acts. To his raw, wounded and grieving characters Donal Ryan says: If you are still breathing, you can be redeemed.
Colin Barrett I read it with enormous pleasure. He is a remarkably imaginative and beautiful user of the language. This book is very moving and true. I love the truth in his work.
Jennifer Johnston All We Shall Know is really very good. All that we've come to expect from Donal: great humanity and an uncanny sense of place but this time – and at last! – we have a man writing from a woman's point of view in a totally convincing and non-patronising way.
Christine Dwyer Hickey