The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan

A short dark novel about a small family in rural Ireland.  I actually enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I was going to as it was not as stereotypical as the plot description made it sound.  It is another of the very short novels on the Booker longlist but in my view this was a more rounded story than The Testament of Mary and worked much better as a short book.  The plot is simple but is told from a number of different viewpoints, each character revealing a little more about the overall narrative and this works very well to keep the book engaging.  I enjoyed the writing style, although the Irish dialogue takes time to get used to, and the characters are easy to be drawn in to.  One of the better novels on the list this year.