Donal Ryan’s latest novel, The Thing About December examines a year in the life of Johnsey Cunliffe, a country boy who inherits the family farm while the Celtic Tiger infects a sense of greed across the Irish countryside. In Ryan’s first novel, The Spinning Heart, he explores the collapse of the Irish economy in a small village. He read both books at Community Boookstore in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and discussed his rise as an author of recession literature.

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