BOOKER NOMINATED FIRST TIME AROUND? IT’S ALL THANKS TO MY WIFE!
Civil servant Donal Ryan got 47 rejection letters before getting a novel published. Now it’s up for literature’s biggest prize. But he knows who deserves the credit...
IF YOU were to imagine what a successful novelist might do when they hear they’ve been nominated for the Man Booker Prize, chances are you’d picture a glamorous party filled with buckets of chilled champagne waiting to be popped. For Irish author Donal Ryan, the scenario was somewhat different. Having taken the day off work — by his own admission to sulk about being omitted from the nominations — he was at home in Limerick on Tuesday when his publisher called to say that he’d made the long list for the award.
Far from champagne, it was a good cup of tea that the shocked Donal needed after the unexpected news. ‘The publisher actually tipped me off about half an hour before it happened,’ Donal says.
‘I probably shouldn’t say that and I’ll probably get them in trouble but that’s how I found out.
‘I had taken the day off but that was because I thought I hadn’t a hope of making the list. I thought I would find out that I hadn’t made the 13 and that I would be disappointed. So, I booked the day off to have some time on my own and to have a good old sulk.
‘When I found out I had made the cut I was in shock.
‘I was actually speechless for about three hours. I was getting text messages and phone calls and I just couldn’t respond for ages.’
That Donal was stunned to find himself in the company of acclaimed writing talents such as Colum McCann and Colm Tóibín — who were also nominated for the prestigious literary award — is understandable. But his story is all the more astonishing when you consider that his novel, The Spinning Heart, is the first book that the 36-yearold has ever had published.
The book was written in Donal’s spare time over the course of several years.
After coming home from his day job as a civil servant with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, he adhered to a strict regime of writing from 9.30pm to 12.30am every night after his children, Thomas, five, and Lucy, three, had gone to bed.
The Spinning Heart is actually his second novel. His first, The Thing About December, was started more than a decade ago and will now be published in the autumn.
Although Donal says that writing the books was a labour of love, he does admit that there were occasions when he was wracked with doubts about his talent. The real champion of his nomination, he insists, is his wife Anne Marie who, whenever he was close to quitting, convinced him that he had the talent to succeed.
‘I never got depressed for longer than an hour to be honest,’ he says. ‘The truth is that my wife Anne Marie wouldn’t let me. She was great.
‘I have always suffered with my confidence when I was writing and she kept me going. I actually went through a crisis of confidence when I was writing
I actually had a crisis of confidence while writing this book
this book.
‘I know it is a cliché that behind every good man is a good woman but in my case it is definitely true.’
Set in a fictional Tipperary village, The Spinning Heart centres on the kidnapping of a child and murder of a man.
These events happen against a backdrop of rising tension in the small town caused by the financial strains and rising emigration numbers brought on by the recession. Sceptics might wonder what Donal and Anne Marie, who is also a civil servant, know of desperate financial times, given that they both have secure State jobs.
‘The subject matter in the book is fairly ubiquitous and I didn’t have to look too far from home for inspiration,’ Donal counters.
‘I have friends and family who have emigrated and they are themes that are in every home in Ireland at the moment.
I think I got used to the rejection letters after a while
‘People may look at me and my wife and say how would we know about hardship with our two public service jobs? But the truth is that our household income has been cut by a quarter over the years through pay cuts and that hasn’t been easy.
‘There is negative equity and I have had to get a gee-up from my parents, so I do know what it is like to feel the pinch. I think most people are in the same boat in one way or another, whether it is through their wages or their house prices.
‘That’s just the way Ireland is at the moment and it is maybe why the book is relevant.’
Originally from Burgess in Co. Tipperary, Donal has included many of the county’s locations — from Nenagh and Roscrea, to the Lookout and the Frolic bar in Carney — in the novel. It also alludes to particular people and events that locals will readily identify with, so I wonder how much of the story is based on real life?
‘None of the characters in the book are based on real people, that’s for sure,’ he insists. ‘But there are bits of me and people I know and my friends in the characters. People say that you have to write what you know and that is the case with some of the book. But I think with fiction it is important to also write what you don’t know, in order to get the truth on paper.’
Having got the book written, the real struggle for Donal was only starting. He says that he spent years sending copies of his manuscript to publishing houses and received 47 rejection letters in his morning post before heading out for his day’s work in Limerick.
‘There was a lot of rejection to be fair — I actually think I got used to it after a while.
‘But I was really the architect of my own misfortune because I would just send the manuscript in with a standard letter and hope for the best. Everyone told me that it was a mistake but I kept
on doing it. I was definitely sending it to the wrong people and they were just placed in a pile and forgotten about.
‘Even the rejection letters seemed all the same. Occasionally I received a personal one which was nice.
‘Poolbeg sent me a very personal one which kept my spirits up a bit but it was still a rejection letter.
‘I had heard about these slush piles of books in publishers’ offices where manuscripts are stacked up and left to one side. I know they exist, I have seen them myself, and that’s where the book ended up more often than not. But thankfully I got a break and it was picked up.’
Finally, it was Dublin’s Lilliput Press which gave Donal his big break. Now, just over a year later, he stands on the brink of winning one of the world’s greatest literary prizes.
The Man Booker shortlist will be announced on September 10 and the winner announced on October 15. The top author will receive a €58,000 prize, but Donal humbly insists that the nomination is more than enough. ‘I feel vindicated, to be honest. I know that I probably shouldn’t, because you shouldn’t rely on someone else’s opinion of yourself or your work, but the truth is I do.
‘You spend thousands of hours writing fiction without getting any shred of recognition and in a way that’s why it is such a big deal for me.
‘I really don’t expect to get any further in the contest and I really mean that. I am one of those people who is over the moon simply to be nominated. To be in the same company as Colum McCann and Colm Tóibín is an honour that I really didn’t expect. That is prize enough for me.
‘I have heard anyway that the size of the novel may be something that affects my chances. I feel that it is weighty in its themes but it probably isn’t physically long enough to be a contender, and that’s fine.’ Since the news of his Man Booker nomination broke, Donal has been besieged by well wishers, as well as interest from the national media. Earlier this week, he was interviewed on RTÉ radio’s The John Murray Show by veteran broadcaster Miriam O’Callaghan.
‘This week has just been a rollercoaster of emotion,’ he admits. ‘I got a great response from the public as well as family and friends. I am not great at dealing with the extra attention and I have been in the papers and on the radio all week.
‘I’ve been on my nerves all the time because I’m not that comfortable talking about myself or the book, especially to the l i kes of Miriam O’Callaghan. But it doesn’t happen all that much so I will just soak it up and get on with it.’
There is talk of The Spinning Heart being optioned by a Hollywood film company so Donal may have to get used to being interviewed.
He admits that the thought of it terrifies him, but he will cross that bridge if and when he comes to it. ‘There are a few rumblings about a movie but I tend not to get involved in that,’ he adds. ‘My literary agent Marianne Gunne O’Connor is looking after that and she will sort out the first dibs on the rights.’
Donal has already started two new novels, although he admits that with two toddlers in the house it is getting tougher to find time to dedicate to his writing. The nomination, he says may sell a few more copies of the book, but his dream is not to make a fortune or inspire a hit movie. Instead he’d like to earn enough to take leave from work and write full-time.
‘I still manage to use that two or three-hour slot each night for writing. Then last year I rather ambitiously started two separate novels at the same time. I have two children and that is getting a bit tougher now as they are getting older.
‘I do give a lot to my job and it is very involving and takes all of my faculties. This could mean that I may be able to take an unpaid career break for maybe six months or so and write full-time for a while. That would be amazing.
‘But I would definitely miss my job if I left it. I know I would.
‘I wouldn’t expect to make Lottotype money on the back of this. The steadfast rule when you are writing modern fiction is that the money does not tend to be life-changing. It won’t make a fortune for me but it would be great if I could take a career break just to write.’
And, presumably, get Anne Marie a suitably sparkly thank-you gift...