Days Without End
AN IRISH TIMES BEST IRISH BOOK OF THE 21ST CENTURY
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4.4 • 44 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
ONE OF THE SUNDAY TIMES' '25 BEST NOVELS OF THE 21ST CENTURY'
Winner of the 2016 Costa Book of the Year
Winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2017
Winner of the Independent Bookshop Week Book Award 2017
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017
'Pitch perfect, the outstanding novel of the Year.' Observer
After signing up for the US army in the 1850s, aged barely seventeen, Thomas McNulty and his brother-in-arms, John Cole, fight in the Indian Wars and the Civil War. Having both fled terrible hardships, their days are now vivid and filled with wonder, despite the horrors they both see and are complicit in. Then when a young Indian girl crosses their path, the possibility of lasting happiness seems within reach, if only they can survive.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Set in the American Wild West during the Civil War, Sebastian Barry’s stunning novel blends page-turning plot and lyrical writing. With shades of Cormac McCarthy and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Days Without End juxtaposes the brutality of the outside 19th-century world with the rich inner life of its protagonists: Irish orphan Thomas and his travelling companion, John. The two men’s unexpected shared experiences—like dancing with miners in a saloon bar and jointly caring for an abandoned Native American girl—builds a powerful portrait of national identity and male sexuality.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Barry's (The Secret Scripture) latest novel features Irish orphan boy Thomas McNulty, who departs Sligo during the potato famine to make his way to America. On the Missouri frontier, Thomas and best buddy John Cole work in a saloon dressing up as female dancing partners for local miners. When the boys mature enough to look more like men, they enlist in the Army, ending up as soldiers in the brutal Indian Wars while secret lovers at night. After their tour of duty ends, they head to Grand Rapids, where they perform onstage in drag, accompanied by Winona, a nine-year-old Sioux they care for like a daughter. With the Civil War looming, Thomas and John Cole join the Union Army, only to encounter more suffering and senseless violence fighting in the Valley of Virginia, then as prisoners of war at Andersonville. Eventually they are freed, but the past catches up: Winona's uncle, Catch-His-Horse-First, wants her back. Barry's description of Thomas's courageous effort to protect Winona achieves the drama and pathos of the author's best fiction. Other parts of the novel prove erratic. Despite moments of humor and colorful metaphors, Thomas's inconsistent, occasionally unconvincing narrative voice wavers between lyricism and earthiness. Thomas's trail of woe, though historically accurate, makes for onerous reading. The explicit battle scenes may also be difficult to take, but they have energy and intensity, in contrast with Thomas and John's love story, which traces without much drama how Thomas comes to realize he prefers dresses to a uniform.
Customer Reviews
Day Without end
A good perspective on the era of 'The American Civil War'
I wish this book was one without end.
The narrative flow of this book is charming and very in keeping with the time. The relationships of the main characters built during a time of horrifying war are those that last a lifetime. The story will hold you captive until the end - I didn’t want it to end. Highly recommended.