''The Queen of Dirt Island'' is a 2022 novel by

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

writer

Donal Ryan Donal Ryan (born 1976) is an Irish people, Irish writer. He has published six novels and one short story collection. In 2016, novelist and playwright Sebastian Barry described Ryan in The Guardian, ''The Guardian'' newspaper as "the king of the n ...

Writing and publication

Ryan based Eileen Aylward, the "Queen" of the book's title, "loosely but quite faithfully" on his mother. Upon reading an early draft of the novel, Ryan's mother did not recognize the character as inspired by her. Ryan did not set out to write a book that "centers" women. Ryan attributed the book's focus on women in part due to the fact that aspects of a central character, Saoirse, came to him "easily". Ryan further attributed the focus on women to his childhood, during which women in his family and local area were strong presences. Ryan deliberately wrote each chapter to include exactly 500 words after writing several vignettes, later included in the novel, that were roughly this length. The vignettes were inspired by the novels ''

Mrs. Bridge ''Mrs. Bridge'' is the debut novel by American author Evan S. Connell, published in 1959. In 117 brief episodes, it tells the story of an upper middle-class, bourgeois family in Kansas City in the period between the First and Second World War, ...

'' and '' Mr. Bridge'' by Evan S. Connell. He began work on ''The Queen of Dirt Island'' after sharing a draft of a "much longer and much darker novel" with his publisher, which his publisher declined to edit without substantial changes. Ryan wrote ''The Queen of Dirt Island'' in 12 weeks.

Reception

Amy Bloom, in a review published by ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'', praised the novel, referring to its short chapters as a "satisfying chain".

References

2022 Irish novels Viking Press books Novels set in Ireland English-language novels {{2020s-novel-stub