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Panenka
His name was Joseph, but for years they had called him Panenka, a name that was his sadness and his story. Panenka has spent 25 years living with the disastrous mistakes of his past, which have made him an exile in his home town and cost him his dearest relationships. Now aged 50, Panenka begins to rebuild an improvised family life with his estranged daughter and her seven year old son.
But at night, Panenka suffers crippling headaches that he calls his Iron Mask. Faced with losing everything, he meets Esther, a woman who has come to live in the town to escape her own disappointments. Together, they find resonance in each other’s experiences and learn new ways to let love into their broken lives.
But at night, Panenka suffers crippling headaches that he calls his Iron Mask. Faced with losing everything, he meets Esther, a woman who has come to live in the town to escape her own disappointments. Together, they find resonance in each other’s experiences and learn new ways to let love into their broken lives.
164 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2021
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July 10, 2021
Literature’s coming home.
Serendipitously topical and (from the author of the word of mouth phenomenon “Leonard and Hungry Paul”) another wonderful antinode to the tendency to equate misanthropy and pessimism with literary merit.
25 years previously a man misses a crucial penalty against his team’s deadliest rivals and feels that he bears the guilt for the disappointment of a whole community – now he has the chance of personal redemption and the team the chance of collective redemption. A book I read by conincidence immediately after England’s national wave of euphoria at the victory in the Euro 2021 Semi Finals - 25 years after the now national hero’s Gareth Southgate’s miss against Germany in the 1996 tournament.
This novel is set in an the unfashionable town of Seneca in an unnamed country – the town and team’s name representing the stoicism that underlies the novel.
Twenty five years earlier the main character Joseph – a midfielder of middling ability – had a late penalty which would stave off both a previously inevitable relegation and a first title for their rivals. His failed attempt to achieve this with a stylistic flourish makes him the focus point of the disappointment of an entire community, pulls apart his personal life with him becoming an loner and exiling himself both mentally and physically from his young family (a wife and three year old daughter) and subsumes his entire identity – even twenty five years later he is known by the ironical nickname of Panenka.
Now – at the age of 50 – he has partly reconciled with his separated daughter Marie-Therese (a supermarket supervisor, separated from a husband she has grown apart from, and whose main confidant is a childhood friend). She and Panenka’s 7-year old grandson Arthur live with him – albeit his internal life is still closed off from them.
When Panenka finds at the book’s opening that his blinding headaches (which he calls the iron mask) are harbingers of a much more serious issue he resolves not to burden his family with the details (not least as Marie-Therese is talking about , or his friends (a small and eccentric group he meets at a nearby bar) or a 40 something hairdresser with who he forges a burgeoning relationship built around mutual identification in a shared sense of past disillusionment.
All this while the football team has a chance at a return from its own 25 year old exile – in this case from the top flight.
As would be expected from the author of “Leonard and Hungry Paul” this is a beautifully crafted, unaffecting novel which deals with real life as lived by most of us (and which is in contrast to the “real life” captured in so much modern misery-literature which in fact is anything but what most of us experience). The themes here are of how to deal with the vicissitudes and disappointments of life – of the need for (but difficulty of) openness and vulnerability if there is to be any form of healing or redemption.
All of the characters are beautifully crafted – even minor ones such as Marie-Theresa’s husband and BABA a menthe-drinking observer in the pub Panenka frequents are beautifully realised in all their life choices, motivations and hurts.
And the writing is eminently quotable – some of my favourite similies included: “His usual fluency on subjects of all kinds was contracting into a narrow cycle of repetitive thoughts as he attempted to solve the problem of that cursed season by going over and over his strategy obsessively, as though trying to find the one blown bulb in a string of Christmas lights.” And “The evening played out as it always did, like a non-recurring decimal, each thought causing the next, onwards without resolution.”
Literally a book of 2021.
Serendipitously topical and (from the author of the word of mouth phenomenon “Leonard and Hungry Paul”) another wonderful antinode to the tendency to equate misanthropy and pessimism with literary merit.
25 years previously a man misses a crucial penalty against his team’s deadliest rivals and feels that he bears the guilt for the disappointment of a whole community – now he has the chance of personal redemption and the team the chance of collective redemption. A book I read by conincidence immediately after England’s national wave of euphoria at the victory in the Euro 2021 Semi Finals - 25 years after the now national hero’s Gareth Southgate’s miss against Germany in the 1996 tournament.
This novel is set in an the unfashionable town of Seneca in an unnamed country – the town and team’s name representing the stoicism that underlies the novel.
Twenty five years earlier the main character Joseph – a midfielder of middling ability – had a late penalty which would stave off both a previously inevitable relegation and a first title for their rivals. His failed attempt to achieve this with a stylistic flourish makes him the focus point of the disappointment of an entire community, pulls apart his personal life with him becoming an loner and exiling himself both mentally and physically from his young family (a wife and three year old daughter) and subsumes his entire identity – even twenty five years later he is known by the ironical nickname of Panenka.
Now – at the age of 50 – he has partly reconciled with his separated daughter Marie-Therese (a supermarket supervisor, separated from a husband she has grown apart from, and whose main confidant is a childhood friend). She and Panenka’s 7-year old grandson Arthur live with him – albeit his internal life is still closed off from them.
When Panenka finds at the book’s opening that his blinding headaches (which he calls the iron mask) are harbingers of a much more serious issue he resolves not to burden his family with the details (not least as Marie-Therese is talking about , or his friends (a small and eccentric group he meets at a nearby bar) or a 40 something hairdresser with who he forges a burgeoning relationship built around mutual identification in a shared sense of past disillusionment.
All this while the football team has a chance at a return from its own 25 year old exile – in this case from the top flight.
As would be expected from the author of “Leonard and Hungry Paul” this is a beautifully crafted, unaffecting novel which deals with real life as lived by most of us (and which is in contrast to the “real life” captured in so much modern misery-literature which in fact is anything but what most of us experience). The themes here are of how to deal with the vicissitudes and disappointments of life – of the need for (but difficulty of) openness and vulnerability if there is to be any form of healing or redemption.
All of the characters are beautifully crafted – even minor ones such as Marie-Theresa’s husband and BABA a menthe-drinking observer in the pub Panenka frequents are beautifully realised in all their life choices, motivations and hurts.
And the writing is eminently quotable – some of my favourite similies included: “His usual fluency on subjects of all kinds was contracting into a narrow cycle of repetitive thoughts as he attempted to solve the problem of that cursed season by going over and over his strategy obsessively, as though trying to find the one blown bulb in a string of Christmas lights.” And “The evening played out as it always did, like a non-recurring decimal, each thought causing the next, onwards without resolution.”
Literally a book of 2021.
May 26, 2021
There are times when a debut novel is so good that there’s a tiny fear that the second novel may not live up to it. Such were my worries when I cracked open Rónán Hession’s Panenka. Followers of this blog know how much I thought his debut Leonard and Hungry Paul just struck every emotional chord in me. The question is whether Panenka would do the same.
The Panenka of the novel (the real Panenka was a Czech footballer who invented a type of penalty kick) is the nickname of a fifty year old divorcee called Joseph. Panenka has a lot of problems. He is suffering from crippling headaches and knows the cause of them. However he will refuse to tell anyone due to a traumatic experience in his early twenties which haunts him and earned him his nickname and he feels he does not want to let people down for a second time.
There’s also a small cast of characters in novel and all have problems. There’s Panenka’s daughter, Marie-Therese who is suffering from imposter syndrome, who also has unresolved issues with her newly separated bar/café owner husband, Arthur, who has an unloving relationship with his wife and BABA, who has trouble fitting in.
As Rónán Hession’s books reflect life, thus the problems these protagonists go through are not entirely solved but like Leonard and Hungry Paul, these characters learn to deal with them. This is precisely why I like Rónán Hession as an author. He does not preach through his characters nor does he dictate how people should live their lives (something that I am noticing social media is doing constantly) and yet, the realisations that Panenka and his daughter go through can be applied to trauma victims. This gives Panenka (the novel) a humane aspect. It also means , like life, the novel is unpredictable.
I just love the way Rónán Hession manages to take small details and make them a joy to read; there’s one scene where Panenka is having his hair cut and the small touches such as running fingers through the hair makes something so simple into a magical act. In another scene Marie-Therese has lunch with her colleagues and we readers see the casual sexism that one can find in society. All these touches are subtle but add power, in fact, something important follows which means the details have their important role.
Panenka is a fantastic novel, full of warmth, memorable characters and relatable situations. In it’s own way the reader will gain a lesson from the book in the process. To answer that earlier question on whether Panenka will strike those emotional chords, the answer is, yes, most definitely. In a world where we live by algorithms, trial by Twitter, extreme opinions and a constant bombardment of how to be a better person via half baked quotes, we need a bit of down to earth kindness and hope. Panenka provides that.
‘You may wish to note the above’
The Panenka of the novel (the real Panenka was a Czech footballer who invented a type of penalty kick) is the nickname of a fifty year old divorcee called Joseph. Panenka has a lot of problems. He is suffering from crippling headaches and knows the cause of them. However he will refuse to tell anyone due to a traumatic experience in his early twenties which haunts him and earned him his nickname and he feels he does not want to let people down for a second time.
There’s also a small cast of characters in novel and all have problems. There’s Panenka’s daughter, Marie-Therese who is suffering from imposter syndrome, who also has unresolved issues with her newly separated bar/café owner husband, Arthur, who has an unloving relationship with his wife and BABA, who has trouble fitting in.
As Rónán Hession’s books reflect life, thus the problems these protagonists go through are not entirely solved but like Leonard and Hungry Paul, these characters learn to deal with them. This is precisely why I like Rónán Hession as an author. He does not preach through his characters nor does he dictate how people should live their lives (something that I am noticing social media is doing constantly) and yet, the realisations that Panenka and his daughter go through can be applied to trauma victims. This gives Panenka (the novel) a humane aspect. It also means , like life, the novel is unpredictable.
I just love the way Rónán Hession manages to take small details and make them a joy to read; there’s one scene where Panenka is having his hair cut and the small touches such as running fingers through the hair makes something so simple into a magical act. In another scene Marie-Therese has lunch with her colleagues and we readers see the casual sexism that one can find in society. All these touches are subtle but add power, in fact, something important follows which means the details have their important role.
Panenka is a fantastic novel, full of warmth, memorable characters and relatable situations. In it’s own way the reader will gain a lesson from the book in the process. To answer that earlier question on whether Panenka will strike those emotional chords, the answer is, yes, most definitely. In a world where we live by algorithms, trial by Twitter, extreme opinions and a constant bombardment of how to be a better person via half baked quotes, we need a bit of down to earth kindness and hope. Panenka provides that.
‘You may wish to note the above’
October 11, 2021
Leonard and Hungry Paul is one of my favourite reads of this year, so I was keen to read Hession's sophomore novel.
Unfortunately, this novel was not that engaging, I was bored and I ended up not caring much about any of the characters who peppered this short novel. I like novels about ordinary people with ordinary lives - this novel is that. But something was missing. Hession affords chapters to several characters, some very loosely connected with Joseph, aka Panenka - a former Seneca FC footballer, infamous for missing a penalty shot some twenty-five years ago, that would have promoted the football club in the first division. This one failure has affected Panenka's life trajectory, he's become even more closed-off, pushed away his wife and daughter and became a mystery, even to his few so-called friends of his.
His daughter, Marie-Therese and her seven-year-old son, Arthur, came to live with him, following her separation from the boy's father.
Panenka enjoys having them around, but he's still mysterious, they don't even know what he does for a living. I mean, give me a break. I understand talking about feelings and past hurts is hard. But talking about one's job should be easy peasy. So I didn't buy the premise, the behaviours and their justifications, which made it difficult for me to care.
I hope Hession's third novel brings back some of the spark and humour found in his debut novel. I'll wait and see.
Unfortunately, this novel was not that engaging, I was bored and I ended up not caring much about any of the characters who peppered this short novel. I like novels about ordinary people with ordinary lives - this novel is that. But something was missing. Hession affords chapters to several characters, some very loosely connected with Joseph, aka Panenka - a former Seneca FC footballer, infamous for missing a penalty shot some twenty-five years ago, that would have promoted the football club in the first division. This one failure has affected Panenka's life trajectory, he's become even more closed-off, pushed away his wife and daughter and became a mystery, even to his few so-called friends of his.
His daughter, Marie-Therese and her seven-year-old son, Arthur, came to live with him, following her separation from the boy's father.
Panenka enjoys having them around, but he's still mysterious, they don't even know what he does for a living. I mean, give me a break. I understand talking about feelings and past hurts is hard. But talking about one's job should be easy peasy. So I didn't buy the premise, the behaviours and their justifications, which made it difficult for me to care.
I hope Hession's third novel brings back some of the spark and humour found in his debut novel. I'll wait and see.
September 28, 2024
His name was Joseph, but for years they had called him Panenka, a name that was his sadness and his story.
Germany are famously kings of the penalty shoot out - or rather elfmeterschießen - having won their last 6 in major tournaments, 4 at World Cups and 2 at the Euros (https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/deuts...) including twice against England. But their first major elfmeterschießen, and the only one in a final, was in 1976 when West Germany faced Czechoslovakia. The first 7 penalties were all scored, but Uli Hoeneß missed the eighth. That left Antonín Panenka with a chance to win the game - and the composed, almost poetic, penalty he took was such a surprise to both Sepp Maier in the German goal and to the watching millions, that it is, 45 years later, still called after him: a Panenka.
https://youtu.be/ROG4-QPIDgo?t=95
Many have tried to emulate this down the years - some with success, but when a Panenka goes wrong it goes very wrong. Notably in May 2021 when the great Sergio Aguero had the chance to put his team 2-0 up and likely clinch the Premier League title for Manchester City:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ5tI...
But Aguero was still able to leave the club as a hero - the title win was merely postponed, and his 182 goals which he did score over 10 seasons, which include 5 Premier League titles, ensures that.
Indeed as the commentators said:
“Oh dear
"Oh"
"That’s what they call a Panenka”
“It’s only because it’s him [Aguero], he'll get away with it."
That wasn’t the case for Joseph, aka Panenka, the eponymous subject of Rónán Hession’s 2nd novel, after the much-heralded Leonard and Hungry Paul. 25 years ago Joseph was a professional football for his provincial town’s team Seneca, perennial losing semi-finalists and now struggling, their previous manager a Wenger-like shadow of his former self:
They could still see glimpses of the great man whose gifts were so clearly slipping away. His usual fluency on subject of all kinds was contracting into a narrow cycle of repetitive thoughts as he attempted to solve the problem of that cursed season by going over and over his strategy obsessively.
On the last day of the season, in the closing minutes, Joseph wins and decides to take a penalty that will save Seneca from relegation and prevent their rivals winning the league title into the bargain. But an Aguero-like failed Panenka costs Seneca their top flight place not just that season, but for the next 25 years, Joseph acquires his nickname and the opprobrium of both the fans and even his teammates, and he retires in the middle of his 20s, going into exile in his own home town, his marriage (he has a 3 year-old daughter) breaking up into the bargain. Over two decades later he is still known as Panenka, even to his erstwhile friends, and still haunted by that day, closing himself off to others.
Hession has said (https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/bo...
) that the story was inspired by an interview (
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/socc...) with Daniel Timofte who failed to score a penalty for Romania against Ireland in the 1990 world cup:
Slightly ironically Timofte puts his miss down to a last minute change of mind not to try a Panenka, or at least to kick the ball in the middle, as he told the Irish goalkeeper on that day many years later (https://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...
Now aged 50, Joseph (Panenka’s) previously estranged daughter Marie-Therese has moved in with her 7 year-old son Arthur, after the break-up of her own marriage to Vincent. Vincent runs a bar in the town, one light on customers other than some Cheers-like ruminating regulars, including Panenka. Panenka himself as the novel opens is suffering from blinding headaches, which he learns have a serious cause, but a few days after his diagnosis meet a new resident of the town, Esther, who has come to Seneca to escape her own past (and who, almost uniquely, has no idea who Joseph did nor of his infamy) and the two build a close friendship.
If my review makes this sound like a football novel, there is certainly that element, and I think it helped me connect more than with Leonard or Hungry Paul. But the novel is much more than that - like Leonard and Hungry Paul it is about self-effacing but fundamentally nice people - and Hession writes beautifully about quiet relationships. Esther is the first person to ask Joseph why he took a panenka and the answer is pitch perfect.
And it is also about how one deals with the unfixable. As Esther tells Joseph:
But whatever is lost, something else always grows back in its place. A big tree falls in a storm, a hundred-year-old tree that's utterly irreplaceable, and yet when the tree goes, so does its shade. And when it's gone, there's light for the first time and something different grows back in its place. Or maybe for a while there is just space, and a new way of looking at things. There's no philosophy in that — no answers. Just a new starting point and a quiet letting go of what's already gone.
Moving and quietly impressive.
Germany are famously kings of the penalty shoot out - or rather elfmeterschießen - having won their last 6 in major tournaments, 4 at World Cups and 2 at the Euros (https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/deuts...) including twice against England. But their first major elfmeterschießen, and the only one in a final, was in 1976 when West Germany faced Czechoslovakia. The first 7 penalties were all scored, but Uli Hoeneß missed the eighth. That left Antonín Panenka with a chance to win the game - and the composed, almost poetic, penalty he took was such a surprise to both Sepp Maier in the German goal and to the watching millions, that it is, 45 years later, still called after him: a Panenka.
https://youtu.be/ROG4-QPIDgo?t=95
Many have tried to emulate this down the years - some with success, but when a Panenka goes wrong it goes very wrong. Notably in May 2021 when the great Sergio Aguero had the chance to put his team 2-0 up and likely clinch the Premier League title for Manchester City:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ5tI...
But Aguero was still able to leave the club as a hero - the title win was merely postponed, and his 182 goals which he did score over 10 seasons, which include 5 Premier League titles, ensures that.
Indeed as the commentators said:
“Oh dear
"Oh"
"That’s what they call a Panenka”
“It’s only because it’s him [Aguero], he'll get away with it."
That wasn’t the case for Joseph, aka Panenka, the eponymous subject of Rónán Hession’s 2nd novel, after the much-heralded Leonard and Hungry Paul. 25 years ago Joseph was a professional football for his provincial town’s team Seneca, perennial losing semi-finalists and now struggling, their previous manager a Wenger-like shadow of his former self:
They could still see glimpses of the great man whose gifts were so clearly slipping away. His usual fluency on subject of all kinds was contracting into a narrow cycle of repetitive thoughts as he attempted to solve the problem of that cursed season by going over and over his strategy obsessively.
On the last day of the season, in the closing minutes, Joseph wins and decides to take a penalty that will save Seneca from relegation and prevent their rivals winning the league title into the bargain. But an Aguero-like failed Panenka costs Seneca their top flight place not just that season, but for the next 25 years, Joseph acquires his nickname and the opprobrium of both the fans and even his teammates, and he retires in the middle of his 20s, going into exile in his own home town, his marriage (he has a 3 year-old daughter) breaking up into the bargain. Over two decades later he is still known as Panenka, even to his erstwhile friends, and still haunted by that day, closing himself off to others.
Hession has said (https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/bo...
) that the story was inspired by an interview (
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/socc...) with Daniel Timofte who failed to score a penalty for Romania against Ireland in the 1990 world cup:
I remember reading Disgrace by JM Coetzee. Disgrace is a really interesting topic and it didn’t really deal with it in a way that I was expecting… Also, I had read an interview with Daniel Timofte, the guy who lost a penalty against Ireland for Romania… He hadn’t got over it. And people hadn’t let him get over it. And though he was a very talented footballer it was still the thing he was known for. The main theme of that book is life’s unfixability. I think our mentality at times is trying to fix the things in our life to allow us to move on to try and say, well, how can you move on if they’re not fixable?
Slightly ironically Timofte puts his miss down to a last minute change of mind not to try a Panenka, or at least to kick the ball in the middle, as he told the Irish goalkeeper on that day many years later (https://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...
I wanted to hit it right down the middle like I always did with penalties but a teammate told me that you were having trouble diving, that you stay in the centre of the goals and he changed my mind. It was a big mistake.
Now aged 50, Joseph (Panenka’s) previously estranged daughter Marie-Therese has moved in with her 7 year-old son Arthur, after the break-up of her own marriage to Vincent. Vincent runs a bar in the town, one light on customers other than some Cheers-like ruminating regulars, including Panenka. Panenka himself as the novel opens is suffering from blinding headaches, which he learns have a serious cause, but a few days after his diagnosis meet a new resident of the town, Esther, who has come to Seneca to escape her own past (and who, almost uniquely, has no idea who Joseph did nor of his infamy) and the two build a close friendship.
If my review makes this sound like a football novel, there is certainly that element, and I think it helped me connect more than with Leonard or Hungry Paul. But the novel is much more than that - like Leonard and Hungry Paul it is about self-effacing but fundamentally nice people - and Hession writes beautifully about quiet relationships. Esther is the first person to ask Joseph why he took a panenka and the answer is pitch perfect.
And it is also about how one deals with the unfixable. As Esther tells Joseph:
But whatever is lost, something else always grows back in its place. A big tree falls in a storm, a hundred-year-old tree that's utterly irreplaceable, and yet when the tree goes, so does its shade. And when it's gone, there's light for the first time and something different grows back in its place. Or maybe for a while there is just space, and a new way of looking at things. There's no philosophy in that — no answers. Just a new starting point and a quiet letting go of what's already gone.
Moving and quietly impressive.
August 13, 2023
Swimming in the warmth of Hession's writing.........
December 16, 2024
I lost my heart to this beautiful melancholic book. I am not even mad that before it stole my heart it broke my heart.
You can't choose whom you love (within familial, romantic and friend relationships), but sometimes fear and self-loathing stop you from showing the love you have. Sometimes though, you realize your fear steals everything that matters and that you can choose how and if you share yourself with the people you love, and you do it because that is how you honor those you love. You give yourself no matter how imperfect it all might be.
Our hero Joseph is known as Panenka. The word is slang for a certain kind of penalty kick in soccer, a kick he chose in a league final game, destroying his local team's standing in the rankings for years to come. That decision destroyed his life, and the lives of those around him who suffered as he withdrew from life. He also became a kind of town pariah as a result. We come in a quarter century later at a moment when perhaps Joseph can find peace through love and trust if only he can get out of his own way and share what is inside him. That process is an agonizing and uncertain one and riding shotgun with Joseph is hard.
Joseph, though central, is not the only person we come to know, and not the only person whose story is told here. Perhaps his is not even the saddest story, or maybe it is? Every person here is filled with decency and pain and hope and disappointment, and they are so fully fleshed out. That is true even of those people who get very little time on the page. I feel like I know them all.
The prose here is beautiful. Hession has a way of using words so they cut through my flesh and bones. I just finished and I sort of feel like every inch of me is quietly crying. I am not sure that reads as a recommendation, but it is. In fact, it is a full-throated recommendation. I had not heard of this author before his work was recommended somewhere in a NYT By the Book interview (I cannot recall who recommended his work, but if I figure it out I will edit this to give them credit.) I thank them even if I cannot name them, and I am glad Hession has another book for me to read.
*** I also learned armpits are apparently called "oxters" in Ireland, and I love learning new slang!
You can't choose whom you love (within familial, romantic and friend relationships), but sometimes fear and self-loathing stop you from showing the love you have. Sometimes though, you realize your fear steals everything that matters and that you can choose how and if you share yourself with the people you love, and you do it because that is how you honor those you love. You give yourself no matter how imperfect it all might be.
Our hero Joseph is known as Panenka. The word is slang for a certain kind of penalty kick in soccer, a kick he chose in a league final game, destroying his local team's standing in the rankings for years to come. That decision destroyed his life, and the lives of those around him who suffered as he withdrew from life. He also became a kind of town pariah as a result. We come in a quarter century later at a moment when perhaps Joseph can find peace through love and trust if only he can get out of his own way and share what is inside him. That process is an agonizing and uncertain one and riding shotgun with Joseph is hard.
Joseph, though central, is not the only person we come to know, and not the only person whose story is told here. Perhaps his is not even the saddest story, or maybe it is? Every person here is filled with decency and pain and hope and disappointment, and they are so fully fleshed out. That is true even of those people who get very little time on the page. I feel like I know them all.
The prose here is beautiful. Hession has a way of using words so they cut through my flesh and bones. I just finished and I sort of feel like every inch of me is quietly crying. I am not sure that reads as a recommendation, but it is. In fact, it is a full-throated recommendation. I had not heard of this author before his work was recommended somewhere in a NYT By the Book interview (I cannot recall who recommended his work, but if I figure it out I will edit this to give them credit.) I thank them even if I cannot name them, and I am glad Hession has another book for me to read.
*** I also learned armpits are apparently called "oxters" in Ireland, and I love learning new slang!
January 10, 2021
I knew that if anyone was going to make me actually give a shit about football, it was Ronan Hession. Thank god, because I went into this with sky-high expectations and I would've been crushed if it had been anything other than utterly fantastic.
Actually, to be fair, I still don't give a shit about football. But I care that it mattered to this story, enough to read the football scenes carefully instead of skipping them. Enough to have a visceral emotional reaction to them. Because good god, this is a gut punch of a book. It brought tears to my eyes, to the point where I had to look away to compose myself. I honestly can't remember when a book last did that to me.
Ronan Hession has a way of making every single one of his characters into a protagonist. He's a master of character, and his books leave me feeling more down to earth than anyone I've ever read before. Even though I had next to nothing in common with any of them, he has a way of seeing people and humanity that makes you feel understood, and appreciated. It's incredible, and it makes it difficult to explain what a book is about, let alone why it was so damn good.
I think this one is about growth. It's about forgiveness, and how sometimes we cause ourselves pain without meaning to, or knowing how to stop. It's a bildungsroman with a lead in his fifties. It's so, so much sadder than Leonard and Hungry Paul - it still made me chuckle in places but overall it's sparse with its humour - but still it has this bittersweet touch of hope. It's a very beautiful, realistic, achievable kind of hope too. Honestly profound, not the instagram-friendly kind that can be boiled down into short platitudes.
So again, I have left the pages of this book feeling like I have new friends.
The sole criticism I have is that in places, the dialogue felt too easy. What I appreciated about Leonard and Hungry Paul so much (and I wish I weren't constantly referring back to his one other novel, but I'm not the only one who's going to be interested to see what carries over and what doesn't), is how subtle and layered the conversations were. The characters in Panenka have spent their whole lives failing to talk to each other, and yet when they do, it is in beautiful, whole, fully-formed and easily-voiced concepts. It was lovely, and I enjoyed the point he was making about how cathartic it can be, but after the rawness of the first half of the book it felt slightly too perfect to be realistic, and therefore lacked some of the emotional payoff I think he was going for. The length, I think, also left me feeling slightly short-changed. There needed to be just a tiny bit more breathing room for the ending.
To give him credit though, I can't deny that it's much more marketable the way that it is. A lot of people are going to find that release, and the ease of it, cathartic. Heaven knows, we're going to need that this year.
All in all, this is a fantastic book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, I will gladly recommend it, and I'll probably re-read it multiple times while I wait for whatever Hession writes next. At this point he could probably write a space opera and I'd love it.
Actually, to be fair, I still don't give a shit about football. But I care that it mattered to this story, enough to read the football scenes carefully instead of skipping them. Enough to have a visceral emotional reaction to them. Because good god, this is a gut punch of a book. It brought tears to my eyes, to the point where I had to look away to compose myself. I honestly can't remember when a book last did that to me.
Ronan Hession has a way of making every single one of his characters into a protagonist. He's a master of character, and his books leave me feeling more down to earth than anyone I've ever read before. Even though I had next to nothing in common with any of them, he has a way of seeing people and humanity that makes you feel understood, and appreciated. It's incredible, and it makes it difficult to explain what a book is about, let alone why it was so damn good.
I think this one is about growth. It's about forgiveness, and how sometimes we cause ourselves pain without meaning to, or knowing how to stop. It's a bildungsroman with a lead in his fifties. It's so, so much sadder than Leonard and Hungry Paul - it still made me chuckle in places but overall it's sparse with its humour - but still it has this bittersweet touch of hope. It's a very beautiful, realistic, achievable kind of hope too. Honestly profound, not the instagram-friendly kind that can be boiled down into short platitudes.
So again, I have left the pages of this book feeling like I have new friends.
The sole criticism I have is that in places, the dialogue felt too easy. What I appreciated about Leonard and Hungry Paul so much (and I wish I weren't constantly referring back to his one other novel, but I'm not the only one who's going to be interested to see what carries over and what doesn't), is how subtle and layered the conversations were. The characters in Panenka have spent their whole lives failing to talk to each other, and yet when they do, it is in beautiful, whole, fully-formed and easily-voiced concepts. It was lovely, and I enjoyed the point he was making about how cathartic it can be, but after the rawness of the first half of the book it felt slightly too perfect to be realistic, and therefore lacked some of the emotional payoff I think he was going for. The length, I think, also left me feeling slightly short-changed. There needed to be just a tiny bit more breathing room for the ending.
To give him credit though, I can't deny that it's much more marketable the way that it is. A lot of people are going to find that release, and the ease of it, cathartic. Heaven knows, we're going to need that this year.
All in all, this is a fantastic book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, I will gladly recommend it, and I'll probably re-read it multiple times while I wait for whatever Hession writes next. At this point he could probably write a space opera and I'd love it.
May 8, 2022
“But isn’t that what allowing yourself be loved is all about – letting something greater than fear into your life?”
Joseph, or Panenka as he is known, has spent over 20 years living with the results of one mistake made in the football game that caused him to be an exile in his town and a stranger in his family. Now aged 50, Panenka lives with his daughter and grandson, and tries to build a life, but all he has worked for threatens to come tumbling down when he begins to have crippling headaches, which he refers to as his “Iron Mask”.
This is probably the most unpopular opinion I’ll ever have. Everyone I have spoken to about this book has given it nothing but praise, but I found Panenka to be incredibly boring, as well as almost feeling unfinished. Although there was some beautiful prose and it did pick up momentarily upon the introduction of Esther, that was about all I could say as to what I enjoyed about this book. All of the characters talked in the same unnatural way, even the eight-year-old grandson, who oscillated between wildly intelligent and childlike. Not only that, but I felt as though not enough time was dedicated to the relationships, particularly the one between Panenka and Esther, who appeared to mean a lot to each other but didn’t really have a lot of on-page interaction to justify this. Also, maybe because I’m not a football fan I’m missing something, but I really don’t understand why people would ostracise Panenka for over 20 years just because of one mistake that he could not have predicted or controlled anyway. Regardless, this was a book I struggled through even though it’s only around 200 pages long, simply because I didn’t want to pick it up, so unfortunately I’m going to have to be controversial and say this one was not for me.
Joseph, or Panenka as he is known, has spent over 20 years living with the results of one mistake made in the football game that caused him to be an exile in his town and a stranger in his family. Now aged 50, Panenka lives with his daughter and grandson, and tries to build a life, but all he has worked for threatens to come tumbling down when he begins to have crippling headaches, which he refers to as his “Iron Mask”.
This is probably the most unpopular opinion I’ll ever have. Everyone I have spoken to about this book has given it nothing but praise, but I found Panenka to be incredibly boring, as well as almost feeling unfinished. Although there was some beautiful prose and it did pick up momentarily upon the introduction of Esther, that was about all I could say as to what I enjoyed about this book. All of the characters talked in the same unnatural way, even the eight-year-old grandson, who oscillated between wildly intelligent and childlike. Not only that, but I felt as though not enough time was dedicated to the relationships, particularly the one between Panenka and Esther, who appeared to mean a lot to each other but didn’t really have a lot of on-page interaction to justify this. Also, maybe because I’m not a football fan I’m missing something, but I really don’t understand why people would ostracise Panenka for over 20 years just because of one mistake that he could not have predicted or controlled anyway. Regardless, this was a book I struggled through even though it’s only around 200 pages long, simply because I didn’t want to pick it up, so unfortunately I’m going to have to be controversial and say this one was not for me.
April 17, 2023
Size çok büyük bir kitaptan bahsedemem belki ama insanın yorgunluğunu alan, içine dinginlik veren, huzurlu hissettiren bir kitaptan bahsedebilirim, Panenka.
***
Baba-kız-torun ilişkisini temeline alan naif, tüy gibi hafif hikaye.
***
Ronan Hesssion, kibar anlatımınla kalbimi fethettin.
***
Bu arada “Panenka” bir futbol terimiymiş. Kitaba adını veren panenka hikayesi oldukça hüzünlü ama çok sevdim.
***
Baba-kız-torun ilişkisini temeline alan naif, tüy gibi hafif hikaye.
***
Ronan Hesssion, kibar anlatımınla kalbimi fethettin.
***
Bu arada “Panenka” bir futbol terimiymiş. Kitaba adını veren panenka hikayesi oldukça hüzünlü ama çok sevdim.
November 27, 2024
The story of a 50-year-old ex footballer nicknamed Panenka (for good reason) who, early in the book, discovers that he has a brain tumour and keeps this information to himself. The story follows his relationships with his daughter, Marie-Therese, his grandson, Arthur, as well as the burgeoning relationship he develops with a hairdresser called Esther.
A game of two halves funnily enough. I was very much enjoying the first half of the book and found Panenka's stoicism in the face of impending death to be interesting. Plus, the local blokes he hung about with at the pub (BABA in particular) were fun to watch but they always felt like background characters of little consequence. I also loved his backstory, playing for the town's local football club Seneca when he was young and, in a game of vital importance, choosing to delicately chip a penalty down the middle only to see it saved (hence the nickname Panenka). This humiliation comes to define him and his life. I would have liked more of this period, the ups and downs of the battle to avoid relegation, the importance of football to a small community, and I enjoyed Hession's obvious love of the game. But once we know the backstory, the origin of his name, we get little more, and instead return to his current predicament. All very readable stuff to be honest.
Sadly, however, the second half of the book felt a little melodramatic, full of soap opera-like relationship struggles that didn't really interest me. I also never really felt that the characters were properly realised or turned into real people with lives beyond Panenka's own story; they felt very much like surface level creations. Esther, in particular, who never really came across to me as a real person but rather a plot device.
Ultimately, the book was mostly charming and easy to read, but I was losing interest towards the end. I would still recommend it but I don't think it was especially groundbreaking or entertaining. It was okay.
A game of two halves funnily enough. I was very much enjoying the first half of the book and found Panenka's stoicism in the face of impending death to be interesting. Plus, the local blokes he hung about with at the pub (BABA in particular) were fun to watch but they always felt like background characters of little consequence. I also loved his backstory, playing for the town's local football club Seneca when he was young and, in a game of vital importance, choosing to delicately chip a penalty down the middle only to see it saved (hence the nickname Panenka). This humiliation comes to define him and his life. I would have liked more of this period, the ups and downs of the battle to avoid relegation, the importance of football to a small community, and I enjoyed Hession's obvious love of the game. But once we know the backstory, the origin of his name, we get little more, and instead return to his current predicament. All very readable stuff to be honest.
Sadly, however, the second half of the book felt a little melodramatic, full of soap opera-like relationship struggles that didn't really interest me. I also never really felt that the characters were properly realised or turned into real people with lives beyond Panenka's own story; they felt very much like surface level creations. Esther, in particular, who never really came across to me as a real person but rather a plot device.
Ultimately, the book was mostly charming and easy to read, but I was losing interest towards the end. I would still recommend it but I don't think it was especially groundbreaking or entertaining. It was okay.
May 18, 2023
This book is almost exclusively made up of really emotional, reflective dialogues and inner monologues full of figurative language and those types of emotional statements that you get at the ending of a sentimental movie. I really don't like this over-the-top writing. I'm not saying that characters who are meant to represent "ordinary" people can't be reflective and have deep conversations and use metaphors, but the characters all speak in the exact same type of highly stylized language and almost exclusively have deep conversations with each other, like 80% of the book is that. It was too much, and all the "depth" felt actually quite surface-level to me.
I did like that the book pointed out how intimate having a haircut can be. When I was reading the scene, I thought it was a nice reflection. But there were just too many emotional scenes on too little space.
I did like that the book pointed out how intimate having a haircut can be. When I was reading the scene, I thought it was a nice reflection. But there were just too many emotional scenes on too little space.
March 2, 2024
4.25/5
“But why should we have to wait until we’re happy before we can be loved? Before letting someone in? It’s the hurt people who need love the most, who deserve it the most, who understand it most.’
~~~
“‘Aren’t you afraid of failing? Letting everyone down?’
‘Maybe it’s important that other people learn how to handle disappointment.’”
Reading this book felt like receiving a giant warm hug from someone you have been looking for all your life.
“But why should we have to wait until we’re happy before we can be loved? Before letting someone in? It’s the hurt people who need love the most, who deserve it the most, who understand it most.’
~~~
“‘Aren’t you afraid of failing? Letting everyone down?’
‘Maybe it’s important that other people learn how to handle disappointment.’”
Reading this book felt like receiving a giant warm hug from someone you have been looking for all your life.
June 19, 2022
Loved it! Loved it, loved it, loved it! As a football fan, growing up in a city with a lower division side where life was all around the game, this just hit very different. There are elements to this book that felt immensely personal to me and the portrayals of these characters were so on point and amazing. I don't want to say anything more than what is in the blurb because this is an incredibly small book that is doing everything it wants to do perfectly.
April 13, 2024
До този момент, това е най-добрата книга която съм чел тази година.
Една тиха, но съкрушителна история за всичките невзети решения.
За дълбоко заровените грешки, които постепенно си пропрапяват път към повърхността.
За приемането на реалността, заедно с цялата и горчивина.
Една тиха, но съкрушителна история за всичките невзети решения.
За дълбоко заровените грешки, които постепенно си пропрапяват път към повърхността.
За приемането на реалността, заедно с цялата и горчивина.
January 18, 2022
I feel bad cause I didn’t really like this. The story was fine but the characters were really underdeveloped. We just skimmed their surface and if you’re going to have a story where nothing happens, you need more depth. Didn’t get to really know anyone in a kind of nothing story. How anyone can give this a 5 star review I find really quite shocking.
But actually now I see that this author also wrote Leonard and Hungry Paul. I couldn’t even finish that one.
But actually now I see that this author also wrote Leonard and Hungry Paul. I couldn’t even finish that one.
January 7, 2021
As Panenka isn’t out until next May, I am going to keep this brief, cryptic and spoiler-free, but I couldn’t resist sharing some initial thoughts on this wonderful book. Natasha Randall has recently been posting some interesting thoughts on Twitter about ‘quiet’ books, the ones which don’t have a juicily baited hook, or a huge drama at their centre. Hession absolutely excels at ‘quiet’. I would argue that his genius lies in revealing the truth and beauty at the heart of the everyday, in taking a story about ‘nothing’ (in big, dramatic plot terms, that is) and showing us how it is really about ‘everything.’ Panenka is suffused with poignancy in the purest sense of the word: it pierces the heart, it contains the sting of truth within its gentle rhythms and ‘small’ events.
As a character, Panenka himself is different from Leonard or Hungry Paul, not as innocent, perhaps less immediately appealing. He has lived life and made mistakes, and his flaws are woven into his character. But this adds a richness and maturity to the book: for all the quirks of Panenka’s life story, he is deeply relatable and realistic. He is not a bad man, but he is far from perfect, and his complexities and struggles ring absolutely true. As his history is gradually revealed, each strand adds to the picture, and we come to understand him in a way that feels organic and meaningful. This book is delicately and expertly crafted – Hession is a storyteller in whom a reader can place absolute trust. Panenka flows along so smoothly and subtly that the writer side of my brain couldn’t help but marvel at how much work must have gone into making it all seem so effortless, while the reader side of me just revelled happily in the quiet intricacy of the story.
The care that Hession takes in this book is evident firstly in the beautifully rounded cast of characters. Everyone gets their turn; every character is lavished with attention. We are given little insights into their situation, their feelings, their true selves that shine a spotlight on even the most minor characters. It is a kind of generosity of spirit from the author, it seems to me, and it makes the book teem with life. The second type of care that is obvious in this book is the attention Hession pays to language. I know Ronan Hession is an avid reader of translated fiction; I suspect he is also a linguist, for he has clearly has an utter delight and amusement in language, a love of words, and of turning them over to examine their hidden sides, and it makes reading his prose a joy. In terms of the story, this careful approach to language manifests itself most affectingly when Esther and Panenka converse. Esther is a wonderful character: I loved her deeply, and the way she talks to Panenka and draws him out made me think, on more than one occasion, that if we all spoke to each other like that, life would be better. Words matter, and when we choose them as carefully as Esther does (with Hession at the helm), we can change lives.
Panenka is a subtle masterpiece: the fascinating painting on the cover art could not be more appropriate. With careful, intentional strokes, Hession paints a word-portrait of a man who is neither better nor worse than any of us: he is simply a flawed human being who has made mistakes, who faces obstacles, who tries to live his life in relation to those around him. A good heart beats at the centre of this book, and though Panenka is sadder in tone than Hession’s first novel, it still has that warm glow of gentle faith in humanity, in the power of connection, in finding a way in the world that makes sense for each one of us. It is a beautiful book, and I loved it.
I am very grateful to the author and to Bluemoose Books for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.
January 19, 2023
Football in the UK is deeply embedded into the identity and culture of the people and the town. Every loss and win correlates to their spirit and pride for better or for worse. And for the players, this can heighten their self-worth or diminish it.
Panenka is what he is called but his name is Joseph and for over 25 years he had to live with a mistake that not only made his team lose the game but set a domino effect of several losses for him -- his family, identity, and all his closest relationships.
We currently find him at 50 as he tries to rebuild his life with his estranged daughter and a new relationship while suffering from crippling headaches he refers to as the Iron Mask. This is a sad story as we not only follow Panenka but other characters as we see everyone live with the difficulties of life.
Under 200 pages but still memorable as this is an emotional story that depicts ordinary people dealing with mistakes, love, and how to move forward and begin again.
“𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙬𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙖𝙞𝙩 𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙡 𝙬𝙚’𝙧𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙮 𝙗𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙? 𝘽𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙞𝙣? 𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙝𝙪𝙧𝙩 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩, 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩, 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩.”
Panenka is what he is called but his name is Joseph and for over 25 years he had to live with a mistake that not only made his team lose the game but set a domino effect of several losses for him -- his family, identity, and all his closest relationships.
We currently find him at 50 as he tries to rebuild his life with his estranged daughter and a new relationship while suffering from crippling headaches he refers to as the Iron Mask. This is a sad story as we not only follow Panenka but other characters as we see everyone live with the difficulties of life.
Under 200 pages but still memorable as this is an emotional story that depicts ordinary people dealing with mistakes, love, and how to move forward and begin again.
“𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙬𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙖𝙞𝙩 𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙡 𝙬𝙚’𝙧𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙮 𝙗𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙? 𝘽𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙞𝙣? 𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙝𝙪𝙧𝙩 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩, 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩, 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩.”
December 26, 2024
İsmi Joseph’ti. Gençlik yıllarında, önemli bir maçta heyecanla yapmış olduğu bir hata sonucunda hayatı tamamen değişti. Kendisine verilen “Panenka” da “Demir Maske” adını verdiği baş ağrıları da bu dönemde hayatının orta yerine kuruldular ve artık bu ikisinden de hayatının sonuna kadar kurtulamadı.
Panenka, yaşadığı hayal kırıklığı sonrası hayata küser ve emekliye ayrılır. Adeta kabuğuna çekilir. Karısına yabancılaşır, kızından uzaklaşır ve yalnız biri haline gelir. Yıllar sonra kızının onunla iletişime geçmesiyle kızı ve torunu hayatına dahil olur. Aile içi hesaplaşmalar başlar ve geçmişlerini temize çekmeye çalışırlar. Ama acaba bu mümkün müdür?
Futbol odaklı bir roman olarak gözükse de, Panenka aslında küçük bir kasabada sıkışan hayatları, kasaba yaşamının insanlar üzerindeki baskısını ve beklentilerini anlatır. Her bir karakterin zamanı gelince sahneye çıkması, güçlü kişisel analizler ve kısa diyaloglar ile güçlü bir roman ortaya çıkar.
Hayat da bazen futbol gibidir. Süre dolana kadar şans ve umut sizinledir ama süre dolunca bazı şeylerin maalesef telafisi yoktur, zamanı geri alamazsınız, o yüzden geçirdiğimiz her anın kıymetini bilmek de ayrıca çok önemlidir.
Kitaptan bir alıntıyla size sormak istiyorum: “Acaba yaşlandıkça geriye sadece tamir edilemeyen şeyler mi kalıyor?” Ne dersiniz?
https://www.instagram.com/cityreaders...
Panenka, yaşadığı hayal kırıklığı sonrası hayata küser ve emekliye ayrılır. Adeta kabuğuna çekilir. Karısına yabancılaşır, kızından uzaklaşır ve yalnız biri haline gelir. Yıllar sonra kızının onunla iletişime geçmesiyle kızı ve torunu hayatına dahil olur. Aile içi hesaplaşmalar başlar ve geçmişlerini temize çekmeye çalışırlar. Ama acaba bu mümkün müdür?
Futbol odaklı bir roman olarak gözükse de, Panenka aslında küçük bir kasabada sıkışan hayatları, kasaba yaşamının insanlar üzerindeki baskısını ve beklentilerini anlatır. Her bir karakterin zamanı gelince sahneye çıkması, güçlü kişisel analizler ve kısa diyaloglar ile güçlü bir roman ortaya çıkar.
Hayat da bazen futbol gibidir. Süre dolana kadar şans ve umut sizinledir ama süre dolunca bazı şeylerin maalesef telafisi yoktur, zamanı geri alamazsınız, o yüzden geçirdiğimiz her anın kıymetini bilmek de ayrıca çok önemlidir.
Kitaptan bir alıntıyla size sormak istiyorum: “Acaba yaşlandıkça geriye sadece tamir edilemeyen şeyler mi kalıyor?” Ne dersiniz?
https://www.instagram.com/cityreaders...
June 20, 2025
"If I met and old school friend and they asked me what I'd been up to for the past twenty years I could probably tell them in a few sentences. But if they asked me what had gone through my head that morning, I could keep them talking all day. Which of those is what's "happening" to a person, really - the outside stuff or the inside stuff?"
November 3, 2023
4.5 - lovely writing. lovely story . “Divine” as wolf would put it
January 13, 2025
algerlega frábær samtímasaga um fjölskyldusambönd og áföll - skyldulesning!
July 23, 2024
I can officially say that Irish writers are telling the stories that resonate with me the most, at least from what I read. I think this book is just simply and efficiently amazing in capturing depression and also in terms of character construction and development. All the characters feel so real, relatable as well and the relationships that they all have with each others feel so human. Also, Arthur is the only child I wish I had in my life, and it shows. The book had me emotional by the end and I rarely tear up while reading (look at me all deprived of emotions, it’s not true of course, but I figure that if a book should make me cry or at least tear up, it must be very good)
There are so many quotes that I kept from that book, but if I could share one it would be the following:
« But whatever is lost, something else always grows back in its place. A big tree falls in a storm, a hundred-year-old tree that’s utterly irreplaceable, and yet when the tree goes, so does its shade. And when it’s gone, there’s a light for the first time and something different grows back in its place. Or maybe for a while there is just space, and a new way of looking at things. »
See Melis, I wrote that one in English for u ;)
There are so many quotes that I kept from that book, but if I could share one it would be the following:
« But whatever is lost, something else always grows back in its place. A big tree falls in a storm, a hundred-year-old tree that’s utterly irreplaceable, and yet when the tree goes, so does its shade. And when it’s gone, there’s a light for the first time and something different grows back in its place. Or maybe for a while there is just space, and a new way of looking at things. »
See Melis, I wrote that one in English for u ;)
January 18, 2026
Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ -
A quietly devastating hug of a novel—Panenka proves that tenderness, when written this well, can hit harder than anything loud.
Panenka by Ronan Hession is one of those rare books where I felt every single word as I read it. It is tender, profound, and deeply human in a way that never feels forced or performative. The themes are handled with such care and emotional intelligence—loneliness, connection, vulnerability, and quiet resilience are explored gently, but with real depth. You can feel how much respect Hession has for these emotions and for the people experiencing them.
Every interaction in this book matters. No conversation feels wasted, no moment feels incidental. Each character brings something unique, fragile, and honest to the story, and even the smallest exchanges carry emotional weight. There is a softness to the storytelling that makes it incredibly moving—this is a novel that understands how much can be said in silence, in hesitation, in kindness.
The main character felt achingly real to me. Not idealized, not exaggerated—just human. At so many points, all I wanted to do was reach through the page, give him a hug, and support him through everything he was quietly carrying. His inner world is portrayed with such empathy that it’s impossible not to care deeply for him.
What makes Panenka especially powerful is how real the flaws feel. The characters stumble, miscommunicate, and fall short in believable ways, and instead of detracting from the story, these imperfections elevate it. They add texture, honesty, and emotional truth, making the novel feel alive rather than polished smooth.
This is a story that holds its characters gently and asks the reader to do the same. Emotional, tender, and beautifully observed, Panenka stayed with me long after I finished it. A truly special book.
Panenka by Ronan Hession is one of those rare books where I felt every single word as I read it. It is tender, profound, and deeply human in a way that never feels forced or performative. The themes are handled with such care and emotional intelligence—loneliness, connection, vulnerability, and quiet resilience are explored gently, but with real depth. You can feel how much respect Hession has for these emotions and for the people experiencing them.
Humans are by nature romantic creatures. By that I don't mean full of love: I mean that they like the idea of things more than the reality of them.
Every interaction in this book matters. No conversation feels wasted, no moment feels incidental. Each character brings something unique, fragile, and honest to the story, and even the smallest exchanges carry emotional weight. There is a softness to the storytelling that makes it incredibly moving—this is a novel that understands how much can be said in silence, in hesitation, in kindness.
The main character felt achingly real to me. Not idealized, not exaggerated—just human. At so many points, all I wanted to do was reach through the page, give him a hug, and support him through everything he was quietly carrying. His inner world is portrayed with such empathy that it’s impossible not to care deeply for him.
Sometimes I want to take on the whole world and then there are other times … when all I want is for the world to take care of me
What makes Panenka especially powerful is how real the flaws feel. The characters stumble, miscommunicate, and fall short in believable ways, and instead of detracting from the story, these imperfections elevate it. They add texture, honesty, and emotional truth, making the novel feel alive rather than polished smooth.
This is a story that holds its characters gently and asks the reader to do the same. Emotional, tender, and beautifully observed, Panenka stayed with me long after I finished it. A truly special book.
Relationships never truly ended, and even when people faded from you their effect was preserved somewhere in the particle physics of experience where everything is a compound made up of traces of everything else
January 16, 2024
3.5 ⭐️
The beginning and end were good but I kinda felt it would lull at points in the middle, lots of scenes at the bar for example weren’t very impactful and would’ve rather heard more from Panenka and Esther’s relationship
I did find it really heartwarming at points though and it was short chapters which I felt kept my interest
Also such a developed, well thought out story in such a short span of pages
Fav quote “ ‘But why should we have to wait until we’re happy before we can be loved? Before letting someone in? It’s the hurt people who need love the most, who deserve it most, who understand it most.’ “
The beginning and end were good but I kinda felt it would lull at points in the middle, lots of scenes at the bar for example weren’t very impactful and would’ve rather heard more from Panenka and Esther’s relationship
I did find it really heartwarming at points though and it was short chapters which I felt kept my interest
Also such a developed, well thought out story in such a short span of pages
Fav quote “ ‘But why should we have to wait until we’re happy before we can be loved? Before letting someone in? It’s the hurt people who need love the most, who deserve it most, who understand it most.’ “
March 22, 2024
3.5☆ — i didn't feel any particular sense of attachment to most of the characters and this bothers me because i think this book was about its characters. the story itself picked up better after the introduction of esther. a warm story, nevertheless!
May 15, 2025
look, no one is more bummed out than me that i didn't like this. however, it's one i can see myself coming back to to give another shot at a different time
April 25, 2023
Romanda heç nə baş vermir, amma insanın daxili aləmini alt-üst edir...
yəqin ki, bu bir ustalıq əlamətidir...
bu, mənim yazıçımdır...
ikinci kitabını oxudum... daha da əmin oldum...
yəqin ki, bu bir ustalıq əlamətidir...
bu, mənim yazıçımdır...
ikinci kitabını oxudum... daha da əmin oldum...
January 3, 2025
O começo do ano já tem história, Panenka ♥️⚽️
A forma como Rónán escreve sobre os momentos mais simples, aqueles que normalmente passam despercebidos mas que, quando olhamos com atenção, carregam uma beleza enorme... para mim, Panenka é sobre segundas oportunidades, sobre como lidamos com a culpa e a coragem necessária para nos perdoarmos.
“Sometimes I want to take on the whole world and then there are other times … when all I want is for the world to take care of me.”
“I think I was in this in-between state where I needed to be surrounded by love but couldn't let it touch me.”
“Habituated loneliness was bearable, but the heart was not built to endure glimpses of what it could never truly have.”
“But isn't that what allowing yourself be loved is all about - letting something greater than fear into your life?”
A forma como Rónán escreve sobre os momentos mais simples, aqueles que normalmente passam despercebidos mas que, quando olhamos com atenção, carregam uma beleza enorme... para mim, Panenka é sobre segundas oportunidades, sobre como lidamos com a culpa e a coragem necessária para nos perdoarmos.
“Sometimes I want to take on the whole world and then there are other times … when all I want is for the world to take care of me.”
“I think I was in this in-between state where I needed to be surrounded by love but couldn't let it touch me.”
“Habituated loneliness was bearable, but the heart was not built to endure glimpses of what it could never truly have.”
“But isn't that what allowing yourself be loved is all about - letting something greater than fear into your life?”
March 31, 2023
Good, solid novel. Sad and hopeful, with lots of love and complicated relationships. Right up my alley.
April 2, 2024
gurl - finished this book at 7am on a tuesday sobbing in my room, so 5/5.
this was BEAUTIFUL. i’m unsure when i’ve last felt so seen, so touched, so comforted by a book. but this did it for me.
each one of the characters was entrenched in a kind of grief that made you see how unbearably beautiful it is to be human - experiencing heartbreak, hope, joy, shame, everything in between - all of it. most of all, it showed me how fragile yet tough humans can be, and how much more i get to appreciate the stories we carry in ourselves now, and how they can be transformed by the courage to let more love into our lives.
she shall be re-read.
this was BEAUTIFUL. i’m unsure when i’ve last felt so seen, so touched, so comforted by a book. but this did it for me.
each one of the characters was entrenched in a kind of grief that made you see how unbearably beautiful it is to be human - experiencing heartbreak, hope, joy, shame, everything in between - all of it. most of all, it showed me how fragile yet tough humans can be, and how much more i get to appreciate the stories we carry in ourselves now, and how they can be transformed by the courage to let more love into our lives.
she shall be re-read.
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