From the author of the award-winning The Spinning Heart comes a heart-twisting tale of a lonely man struggling to make sense of a world moving faster than he is. Set over the course of one year of Johnsey Cunliffe's life, The Thing About December breathes with Johnsey's grief, bewilderment, humour and agonising self-doubt. While the Celtic Tiger rages, and greed becomes the norm, Johnsey desperately tries to hold on to the familiar, even as he loses those who have protected him from a harsh world all his life. Village bullies and scheming land-grabbers stand in his way, every which way he turns. It's no wonder the crossbeam in the slatted shed seems to call to Johnsey. The Thing About December confirms Donal Ryan's status as one of the best writers of his generation