The Queen of Dirt Island
By: Donal Ryan
4.09
Format: 256 pages, Hardcover
From the multi-award-winning and internationally bestselling author Donal Ryan, a searing, jubilant…
Want to Read $ 13.99"Time will wind its own sweet way. We have no choice but to keep up."-Donal Ryan, The Queen of Dirt Island
"Happiness was a strange notion, something that was wrapped neatly, and packed into the closing scenes of television shows and daytime films, sharply relieved on the screen, but blurry in real life, a vague ideal"-Donal Ryan, The Queen of Dirt Island
"her mother and grandmother and great-grandmother had walked her to the classroom door and Mammy had cried a bit and Granny had told her to cop on and Nana then had told Granny to cop on herself and they’d nearly started one of their fights right there in front of all the other children and parents and the teacher"-Donal Ryan, The Queen of Dirt Island
"She felt sad in that moment for anyone in the world who didn’t have a mother like hers. A mother who was standing now above her quarry like a prizefighter in a swell of victory, looking slowly left and right as if to challenge with her silent stare any comers, who was looking at the windows and doorways of her neighbours’ houses through dark eyes flashing with anger and wild strength."-Donal Ryan, The Queen of Dirt Island
If you liked the literary fiction plot in The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan , here is a list of 18 books like this:
1. Foster
By: Claire Keegan
3.92
Format: 256 pages, Paperback
A small girl is sent to live with foster parents on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when s… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Claire Keegan's Foster book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
2. Prophet Song
By: Paul Lynch
4.10
Format: 259 pages, Kindle Edition
A fearless portrait of a society on the brink as a mother faces a terrible choice, from an internat… read more
Want to Read $ 9.10Similar categories in Paul Lynch's Prophet Song book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
"people are entitled to some small moment of peace."-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song
"the child absorbing the mother’s trauma and storing it in his body for later use,"-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song
"... time is at once addition and subtraction, time adds one day to the next and always takes away from what's left..."-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song
"...knowing how it is so that all boys grow up and pull away from home to unmake the world in the guise of making it, nature decrees it so."-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song
3. Old God's Time
By: Sebastian Barry
3.85
Format: 261 pages, Hardcover
From the two-time Booker Prize finalist author, a dazzlingly written novel exploring love, memory, … read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Sebastian Barry's Old God's Time book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
"Per ell aquest era el sentit de la jubilació, de l'existència: estar-se immòbil, feliç i inútil"-Sebastian Barry, Old God's Time
"Per ell aquest era el sentit de la jubilació, de l'existència: estar-de immòbil, feliç i inútil"-Sebastian Barry, Old God's Time
"No one minds life as long as they are not trying to leave it. Nor death, as long as they are not dying."-Sebastian Barry, Old God's Time
4. Tom Lake
By: Ann Patchett
3.99
Format: 309 pages, Hardcover
In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again prov… read more
Want to Read $ 15.99Similar categories in Ann Patchett's Tom Lake book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- adult fiction
- literary fiction
- family
- fiction
- contemporary
- historical fiction
- audiobook
"You can’t pretend this [Covid] isn’t happening,"-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake
"In the summer the pear trees were fine. In the summer, all that is hideous about a pear tree is hidden by leaves and pears. But once those disguises were removed they were nothing but acres of murder…"-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake
"Hazel, listen to me. I'm going to tell you something important, you need to be brave.' I then explained to the dog how I have told myself for so many years that my career fell apart because I wasn't …"-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake
"It's as if someone bought all the diamonds at Tiffany's, and crushed them into dust, then spread that dust across the water so that it sifts down evenly, filtering through the shards of light that cu…"-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake
5. The Wren, the Wren
By: Anne Enright
3.55
Format: 278 pages, Hardcover
An incandescent novel about the inheritance of trauma, wonder, and love across three generations of… read more
Want to Read $ 9.66Similar categories in Anne Enright's The Wren, the Wren book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- literary fiction
- family
- fiction
- contemporary
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
"It's not that I think about him constantly, he is my way of thinking. His mind is my compass, his eyes my only mirror."-Anne Enright, The Wren, the Wren
"We don’t walk down the same street as the person walking beside us. All we can do is tell the other person what we see. We can point at things and try to name them. If we do this well, our friend can…"-Anne Enright, The Wren, the Wren
"We don't walk down the same street as the person walking beside us. All we can do is tell the other person what we see. We can point at things and try to name them. If we do this well, our friend can…"-Anne Enright, The Wren, the Wren
6. Juno Loves Legs
By: Karl Geary
4.16
Format: 304 pages, Hardcover
Juno loves Legs. She's loved him since their first encounter at school in Dublin, the time she foug… read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Karl Geary's Juno Loves Legs book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- literary fiction
- fiction
- historical fiction
- contemporary
- ireland
- irish literature
7. James
By: Percival Everett
4.54
Format: 303 pages, Hardcover
A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , both harrowing and f… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Percival Everett's James book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- literary fiction
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
- audiobook
8. Water
By: John Boyne
4.33
Format: 176 pages, Hardcover
The first thing Vanessa Carvin does when she arrives on the island is change her name. To the local… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in John Boyne's Water book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- literary fiction
- family
- fiction
- contemporary
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
9. Earth
By: John Boyne
4.34
Format: 168 pages, Kindle Edition
From million-copy-bestselling author John Boyne, an inescapably gritty story about one young man wh… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in John Boyne's Earth book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
10. North Woods
By: Daniel Mason
4.15
Format: 372 pages, Hardcover
A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those … read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Daniel Mason's North Woods book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- adult fiction
- literary fiction
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
- audiobook
11. Long Island (Eilis Lacey, #2)
By: Colm Tóibín
3.82
Format: 294 pages, Hardcover
From the beloved, critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author comes a spectacularly movi… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Colm Tóibín's Long Island (Eilis Lacey, #2) book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- literary fiction
- historical
- family
- fiction
- historical fiction
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
12. The Bee Sting
By: Paul Murray
3.96
Format: 656 pages, Hardcover
From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and … read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Paul Murray's The Bee Sting book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- literary fiction
- family
- fiction
- contemporary
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
"It is for love. You are doing this for love."-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting
"We all have problems. But often instead of accepting the truth about ourselves, we cover it up. We try to make ourselves the way we think we’re expected to be."-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting
"Maybe every era has an atrocity woven into its fabric. Maybe every society is complicit in terrible things and only afterwards gets around to pretending they didn’t know. When the kids ask, tell them…"-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting
"Maybe that’s how it will go – instead of one definitive cataclysm, a series of ‘anomalies’, each time lasting longer, with the stretches of what you call normal life becoming further and further apar…"-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting
13. Absolution
By: Alice McDermott
3.81
Format: 324 pages, Hardcover
A riveting account of women’s lives on the margins of the Vietnam War. In Saigon in 1963, two yo… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Alice McDermott's Absolution book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- adult fiction
- literary fiction
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
- audiobook
14. How to Build a Boat
By: Elaine Feeney
3.78
Format: 298 pages, Paperback
This is the story of a remarkable boy and his search for his mother, told with warmth, tenderness a… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Elaine Feeney's How to Build a Boat book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
"To some, the world is filled with threats. To others, opportunities."-Elaine Feeney, How to Build a Boat
"That's dedication and if life's taught me anything, we go to what we love, eventually - we mightn't find it straight away, but we get there."-Elaine Feeney, How to Build a Boat
"...[W]hile language came readily to Tess when dealing with herself alone, having one-way conversations over all of her choices on her long walks in the woods, or on her way to school, now she no long…"-Elaine Feeney, How to Build a Boat
"How can I miss someone I have never met? Jamie said. Grief was profoundly different for both humans. One felt an intense anger he had never recovered from, the other knew something was missing, a vac…"-Elaine Feeney, How to Build a Boat
15. Trespasses
By: Louise Kennedy
4.00
Format: 304 pages, Hardcover
Set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a shattering novel about a young woman caught between … read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Louise Kennedy's Trespasses book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- literary fiction
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
- contemporary
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
16. The Queen of Dirt Island
By: Donal Ryan
4.09
Format: 256 pages, Hardcover
From the multi-award-winning and internationally bestselling author Donal Ryan, a searing, jubilant… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- adult fiction
- literary fiction
- historical
- fiction
- contemporary
- family
- historical fiction
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
"Time will wind its own sweet way. We have no choice but to keep up."-Donal Ryan, The Queen of Dirt Island
"Happiness was a strange notion, something that was wrapped neatly, and packed into the closing scenes of television shows and daytime films, sharply relieved on the screen, but blurry in real life, a…"-Donal Ryan, The Queen of Dirt Island
"her mother and grandmother and great-grandmother had walked her to the classroom door and Mammy had cried a bit and Granny had told her to cop on and Nana then had told Granny to cop on herself and t…"-Donal Ryan, The Queen of Dirt Island
"She felt sad in that moment for anyone in the world who didn’t have a mother like hers. A mother who was standing now above her quarry like a prizefighter in a swell of victory, looking slowly left a…"-Donal Ryan, The Queen of Dirt Island
17. My Father's House (Rome Escape Line Trilogy, #1)
By: Joseph O'Connor
4.05
Format: 276 pages, Kindle Edition
From the best-selling author of Star of the Sea, a WWII-era “great escape” novel set in the Vatican… read more
Want to Read $ 11.49Similar categories in Joseph O'Connor's My Father's House (Rome Escape Line Trilogy, #1) book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
- ireland
- audiobook
"Life schools you the way no catechism will."-Joseph O'Connor, My Father's House (Rome Escape Line Trilogy, #1)
"There are times when we must permit one another to lie."-Joseph O'Connor, My Father's House (Rome Escape Line Trilogy, #1)
"I was singing in Belfast the night the Luftwaffe firebombed the theatre. That's what you call a mixed review."-Joseph O'Connor, My Father's House (Rome Escape Line Trilogy, #1)
"A religiously minded kid will often be good at lying awake all night because you need an imagination if you're going to believe."-Joseph O'Connor, My Father's House (Rome Escape Line Trilogy, #1)
18. So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men
By: Claire Keegan
3.99
Format: 128 pages, Hardcover
Librarian's Note: This is the entry for the short story collection. Please don't combine it with th… read more
Want to Read $ 9.00Similar categories in Claire Keegan's So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- adult fiction
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- ireland
- irish literature
"You know what is at the heart of misogyny? When it comes down to it?’ ‘So I’m a misogynist now?’ ‘It’s simply about not giving,’ she said."-Claire Keegan, So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men
19. Kala
By: Colin Walsh
3.99
Format: 416 pages, Hardcover
A gripping literary page-turner from a rising Irish talent in which former friends, estranged for t… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Colin Walsh's Kala book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
"Vapers are cunt wands,' Donna snaps."-Colin Walsh, Kala
"I just want to switch myself off. Disconnect from everything."-Colin Walsh, Kala
"So much of the night's vague. A film strip with half the frames missing."-Colin Walsh, Kala
"Who drinks a decaf cappuccino? Be honest with yourself and get a cup of warm milk."-Colin Walsh, Kala
20. The Coast Road
By: Alan Murrin
3.99
Format: 320 pages, Hardcover
A poignant and heartbreaking debut novel set in the 1990s in a claustrophobic coast town. With divo… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Alan Murrin's The Coast Road book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- literary fiction
- historical
- family
- fiction
- contemporary
- historical fiction
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
21. Poor: Grit, courage, and the life-changing value of self-belief
By: Katriona O'Sullivan
4.61
Format: 320 pages, Paperback
As the middle of five kids growing up in dire poverty, the odds were low on Katriona O'Sullivan mak… read more
Want to Read $ 10.99Similar categories in Katriona O'Sullivan's Poor: Grit, courage, and the life-changing value of self-belief book and Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
