THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER
TWICE WINNER OF THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR
'Full of love and heartache, this is an unforgettable novel from one of our finest writers.' DOUGLAS STUART
'Shocking, stunning and extraordinarily brave. Barry has once again written a character for the ages.' LIZ NUGENT
Recently retired policeman Tom Kettle is settling into the quiet of his new home, a lean-to annexed to a Victorian castle overlooking the Irish Sea. For months he has barely seen a soul, catching only glimpses of his eccentric landlord and a nervous young mother who has moved in next door. Occasionally, fond memories return, of his family, his beloved wife June and their two children.
But when two former colleagues turn up at his door with questions about a decades-old case, one which Tom never quite came to terms with, he finds himself pulled into the darkest currents of his past.
A beautiful, haunting novel, in which nothing is quite as it seems, Old God's Time is about what we live through, what we live with, and what may survive of us.
Review
'There is a kind of writing so rare and accomplished that it seems to erase the very nuts and bolts of its own construction. Reading it can produce an experience that feels close to miraculous ... I don't expect to read anything as moving for many years.' - Guardian
'What distinguishes Barry's work however is his exquisite use of language. . . Grief is threaded through this story but alongside it is stitched great strength and endurance. As Tom's story reaches a conclusion and the horrors recede like the lights of the pier behind him, it is the love at the heart of the novel that remains.' -- Sinead Crowley - RTE Guide
'A meditative, mournful masterpiece.' - Sunday Times
'A book of aching and sorrow written with an ear to the poetry of common words from the master of the form. I didn't want it to end, I very much wanted it to end. I was worried and exhilarated in equal measure. In short, I loved it.' -- KIT DE WAAL
'Rare indeed are those novels worth cherishing and keeping close. Sebastian Barry's Old God's Time is one of them.' - Daily Telegraph
His work reminds us how much we need these rare gifts of the natural storyteller. -- TESSA HADLEY
'Nobody writes like, nobody takes risks like, nobody pushes the language, and the heart, and the two together, quite like Sebastian Barry does.' -- ALI SMITH
Barry is the laureate of empathy. -- PAUL PERRY - Sunday Independent
Barry writes about unconditional love better than anyone I have ever read. Ever. -- MELISSA HARRISON
Amazing ... For page after page, I found myself thinking, how does he do that? -- DAVID NICHOLLS
One of Sebastian Barry's extraordinary gifts as a writer is his boundless capacity for empathy. -- SUSAN CAHILL - Irish Times
'Few can write like Sebastian Barry, there is a real thrill as each sentence unfolds. Old God's Time is a portrait of a good man facing the failings of his past. It is wonderfully alive because Barry is so attuned to the human condition, to the poetry in ordinary lives. Full of love and grief and heartache, this is an unforgettable novel from one of our finest writers.' -- DOUGLAS STUART
'Barry writes about unconditional love better than anyone I have ever read. Ever.' -- MELISSA HARRISON
Book Description
From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Days Without End and The Secret Scripture, and one of our most soulful living writers, Old God's Time is a extraordinary novel about memory, love, mystery and reckoning.
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