“Vital storytelling and literary flourishes distinguish Scottish author O'Neill's creative story collection . . . there's also sex, clever narration, and illustrative graphics that add wit and whimsy. What brings all of the tonal diversity together is O'Neill's obvious understanding of the cohesiveness of language, its power to transcend and overcome, and the way an economy of precious words in a short story can achieve a novel's worth of emotion.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“O'Neill shows large-heartedness and a remarkable depth of experience in stories whose settings range from Australia to Rwanda to war-torn Eastern Europe . . . the singular mix of humor, intelligence, and global awareness sets this impressive collection apart from the crowd.” —Library Journal, starred review
“A story collection brimming with imagination” —Kirkus
“With the international scope of Nam Le's The Boat, the rooted sense of place in Anthony Doerr's The Shell Collector, and the playful wit of Jeanette Winterson's The World and Other Places, Ryan O'Neill may have written the best first collection of stories you're likely to read. If someone asked me to name my ideal collection of contemporary short fiction, I'd point to The Weight of a Human Heart and say, ‘This is it.'” —Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author of A Land More Kind Than Home
“Open this collection of stories and you will be astounded by the hugeness of the writer's heart, and by the breadth and depth of his vision. Ryan O'Neill is a writer of limitless imagination, unafraid to travel to the many dangerous and wonderful places that imagination takes him.” —Hector Tobar, bestselling author of The Barbarian Nurseries
“Inventive, witty, and profoundly human, Ryan O'Neill is one of Australia's best short story writers.” —Simon Van Booy, author of Everything Beautiful Began After and winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award
“The Weight of a Human Heart is refreshing, funny, devastating. Ryan O'Neill's stories break rules to great effect; they're adventurous, textured, full of heart. His prose is active and vivid; his characters are imperfectly real, out in the world, and under pressure. O'Neill is a smart and daring writer; he challenges the conventions of short fiction, but his stories are still deeply satisfying and offer glimpses into worlds readers need to see, worlds that are vile, beautiful, and utterly human.” —Megan Mayhew Bergman, author of Birds of a Lesser Paradise
“With hints of both O. Henry and Rick Moody, Ryan O'Neill has written a memorable collection of stories that's as stylistically inventive as it is emotionally engaging.” —Alethea Black, author of I Knew You'd Be Lovely
“By turns acerbic, playful and serious, O'Neill is equally at home with satire and pathos” —Cate Kennedy, author of Dark Roots
“Playful with content, O'Neill is also joyfully original with format . . . [in] this brilliant collection.” —The Independent, UK
“Daring, intelligent, witty, full of new discoveries and exhilarations.” —The Guardian, UK
“Both inventive and moving . . . Solving the riddles of his prose becomes addictive.” —The Times Literary Supplement, UK
“Uproarious, dazzling collection” —The Monthly, Australia
