Sebastian Barry has won the Costa Novel Award for Days Without End and the Costa Book Award for The Secret Scripture. Barry has also won the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year Award and the Walter Scott Prize. His work has twice been short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. He is the author of six previous novels and lives in Ireland.
"A haunting archeology of youth . . . Barry introduces a narrator
who speaks with an intoxicating blend of wit and wide-eyed awe, his
unsettlingly lovely prose unspooling with an immigrant's peculiar
lilt and a proud boy's humor. But in this country's adolescence he
also finds our essential human paradox, our heartbreak: that love
and fear are equally ineradicable."--Katy Simpson Smith, The New
York Times Book Review "Days Without End is suffused with joy and
good spirit . . . Through Barry, the frontiersman has a poet's
sense of language . . . If you underlined every sentence in Days
Without End that has a rustic beauty to it, you'd end up with a
mighty stripy book."--Sarah Begley, Time "Mr. Barry's frontier saga
is a vertiginous pile-up of inhumanity and stolen love: gore-soaked
and romantic, murderous and musical . . . The rough-hewn yet
hypnotic voice that Mr. Barry has fashioned carries the novel from
the staccato chaos of battle to wistful hymns to youth . . . an
absorbing story that sets the horrors of history against the
consolations of hearth and home." --Sam Sacks, The Wall Street
Journal "Alternately brutal and folksy . . . Barry's prose can take
brilliant turns without sounding implausible coming out of Thomas's
mouth. A mordant vein of comedy runs through the book . . . the
'wilderness of furious death' his characters inhabit has a
gut-punching credibility."
--Michael Upchurch, The Washington Post
"Barry's magisterial tale of love, war and redemption is one of the
year's great novels . . . Visceral violence, wrenching emotion,
astutely drawn characters and a compelling narrative voice make for
memorable reading."--Minneapolis Star Tribune
"McNulty is a lyrical and companionable narrator for this bloody
part of America's history."--NPR "A true leftfield wonder: Days
Without End is a violent, superbly lyrical western offering a
sweeping vision of America in the making, the most fascinating
line-by-line first person narration I've come across in
years."--Kazuo Ishiguro, Booker Prize winning author of The Remains
of the Day and The Buried Giant "Sebastian Barry had me in no
uncertain terms from the first sentence and never let up. And he
writes like there's no tomorrow--like there are days without end.
He navigates the terrain as a master of fictional conventions and
sweeps us along in a big picaresque arc that is just the right
vessel for his thematic necessities." --David Guterson, author of
Snow Falling on Cedars
"Wonderful... here's something about the narrator's voice, a
combination of utter ingenuousness and deep humane wisdom, that
reminds you of 'Moby-Dick.' I'd say this is the great American
novel of the decade, but the author happens to be Irish." -Daniel
Mendelsohn, author of An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic "A
tour de force of style and atmosphere . . . Evocative of Cormac
McCarthy and Charles Portis, Days Without End is a timeless work of
historical fiction."--Booklist (Starred Review) "A lively, richly
detailed story . . . A pleasure for fans of Barry and his McNulty
stories." -Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) "Incredible . . . poetic
. . . Remarkable . . . A gorgeous book about love and guilt, and
duty to family."--Book Riot's "All The Books!" "Days Without End is
a work of staggering openness; its startlingly beautiful sentences
are so capacious that they are hard to leave behind, its narrative
so propulsive that you must move on. In its pages, Barry conjures a
world in miniature, inward, quiet, sacred; and a world of spaces
and borders so distant they can barely be imagined. Taken as a
whole, his McNulty adventure is experimental, self-renewing,
breathtakingly exciting. It is probably not ended yet."--Alex
Clark, Guardian "A crowning achievement."--Justine Jordan, The
Guardian "Barry writes with a gloomy gloriousness: everyone that
crosses his pages is in mortal danger, but there's an elegant
beauty even in the most fraught moments."--Library Journal
"Thomas's first-person narration sings with wonder at the beauty of
the world and their place in it . . . Sebastian Barry balances
gruesome depictions of massacres, near-starvation and Civil War
battles with poetic phrasing and exclamations of joy at the wonders
of nature and the gift of life . . . painful and beautiful
novel."--Shelf Awareness
"A lyrical, violent, touching book that is a war story, and a
surprising love story. . . Barry, the Irish author, presents his
tale in language that recalls great American writers, from Walt
Whitman to Stephen Crane to Cormac McCarthy . . . Barry's lyrical
prose is full of fire and tenderness, violence and compassion,
providing a sweeping and intimate vision of America's conquest and
its continuing search for identity." --Richmond Times-Dispatch "An
absorbing novel... By making all of his characters rounded,
full-blooded human beings, [Barry] has accomplished that thing -
inclusion, I think we call it now - that art, particularly fiction,
does best...The writing is unflaggingly vital; sentence after
sentence fragment leaps out with surprises."--The Bay Area
Reporter
"Some novels sing from the first line, with every word carrying the
score to a searing climax, and Days Without End is such a book. It
has the majestic inevitability of the best fiction, at once
historical but also contemporary in its concerns ... Days Without
End is pitch-perfect, the outstanding novel of the year so
far."--Observer "For its exhilarating use of language alone,
Sebastian Barry's Days Without End stood out among the year's
novels. Epic in conception but comparatively brief in its extent,
this brutal, beautiful book also features the year's most beguiling
narrator ... A great American novel which happens to have been
written by an Irishman."--The Times Literary Supplement "The novel
comes close to being a modern masterpiece. Written in a style that
is as delicate and economical as a spider's web, it builds to a
climax that is as brutally effective as a punch to the gut."--The
Times (UK)
"Remarkable ... Life-affirming in the truest and best
ways."--Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail
"Epic, lyrical and constantly surprising ... a rich and satisfying
novel."--Jeff Robson, Independent "A beautiful, savage, tender,
searing work of art. Sentence after perfect sentence it grips and
does not let go."--Donal Ryan, author of The Spinning Heart, winner
of the Guardian first book award
"A true leftfield wonder: Days Without End is a violent, superbly
lyrical western offering a sweeping vision of America in the
making, the most fascinating line-by-line first person narration
I've come across in years."--Kazuo Ishiguro, Booker Prize winning
author of The Remains of the Day and The Buried Giant
"Sebastian Barry had me in no uncertain terms from the first
sentence and never let up. And he writes like there's no
tomorrow--like there are days without end. He navigates the terrain
as a master of fictional conventions and sweeps us along in a big
picaresque arc that is just the right vessel for his thematic
necessities."--David Guterson, author of Snow Falling on Cedars
"A tour de force of style and atmosphere . . . Evocative of Cormac
McCarthy and Charles Portis, Days Without End is a timeless work of
historical fiction."--Booklist (Starred Review)
"A lively, richly detailed story . . . A pleasure for fans of Barry
and his McNulty stories." -Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
"Powerful and unsettling, an important look at one of history's
most regrettable chapters."--Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Days Without End is a work of staggering openness; its startlingly
beautiful sentences are so capacious that they are hard to leave
behind, its narrative so propulsive that you must move on. In its
pages, Barry conjures a world in miniature, inward, quiet, sacred;
and a world of spaces and borders so distant they can barely be
imagined. Taken as a whole, his McNulty adventure is experimental,
self-renewing, breathtakingly exciting. It is probably not ended
yet."--Alex Clark, Guardian
"Barry writes with a gloomy gloriousness: everyone that crosses his
pages is in mortal danger, but there's an elegant beauty even in
the most fraught moments."--Library Journal
"Some novels sing from the first line, with every word carrying the
score to a searing climax, and Days Without End is such a book. It
has the majestic inevitability of the best fiction, at once
historical but also contemporary in its concerns ... Days Without
End is pitch-perfect, the outstanding novel of the year so
far."--Observer
"For its exhilarating use of language alone, Sebastian Barry's Days
Without End stood out among the year's novels. Epic in conception
but comparatively brief in its extent, this brutal, beautiful book
also features the year's most beguiling narrator ... A great
American novel which happens to have been written by an
Irishman."--The Times Literary Supplement
"The novel comes close to being a modern masterpiece. Written in a
style that is as delicate and economical as a spider's web, it
builds to a climax that is as brutally effective as a punch to the
gut."--The Times (UK)
"Remarkable ... Life-affirming in the truest and best
ways."--Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail
"Epic, lyrical and constantly surprising ... a rich and satisfying
novel."--Jeff Robson, Independent
"A beautiful, savage, tender, searing work of art. Sentence after
perfect sentence it grips and does not let go."--Donal Ryan, author
of The Spinning Heart, winner of the Guardian first book award
"A true leftfield wonder: Days Without End is a violent, superbly
lyrical western offering a sweeping vision of Amreica in the
making, the most fascinating line-by-line firs tperson narration
I've come across in years."
Kazuo Ishiguro, Booker Prize winning author of The Remains of the
Day and The Buried Giant
Praise for Sebastian Barry
One of the best writers in the English language . . . [Barry s]
soul-wrenching narratives and incantatory prose . . . are powerful
canvases of the human spirit. The Washington Post
Barry s prose has a dreamlike quality. . . . The raw elegance of
his storytelling has its own beauty. Booklist
Barry succeeds admirably in creating complex individuals who find
themselves trapped in a brutal reality. Los Angeles Times
Sebastian Barry s handling of voice and cadence is masterly. His
fictional universeis filled with life, quiet truth, and exquisite
intimacy. Colm Toibin, author of the Costa Novel
Award-winningBrooklyn
Prose of often startling beauty. Margot Livesey, author ofThe
Flight of Gemma Hardy
Language of surpassing beauty. The New York Times
Luminous and lyrical. O, The Oprah Magazine
[Barry s] words have a stony allure of the Irish poets and the
lyrical pull of an epic storyteller. The Boston Globe"
Praise for Sebastian Barry
One of the best writers in the English language . . . [Barry s]
soul-wrenching narratives and incantatory prose . . . are powerful
canvases of the human spirit. "The Washington Post"
Barry s prose has a dreamlike quality. . . . The raw elegance of
his storytelling has its own beauty. "Booklist"
Barry succeeds admirably in creating complex individuals who find
themselves trapped in a brutal reality. "Los Angeles Times"
Sebastian Barry s handling of voice and cadence is masterly. His
fictional universeis filled with life, quiet truth, and exquisite
intimacy. Colm Toibin, author of the Costa Novel
Award-winning"Brooklyn"
Prose of often startling beauty. Margot Livesey, author of"The
Flight of Gemma Hardy"
Language of surpassing beauty. "The New York Time"s
Luminous and lyrical. "O, The Oprah Magazine"
[Barry s] words have a stony allure of the Irish poets and the
lyrical pull of an epic storyteller. "The Boston Globe""
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