Night Boat to Tangier
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4.0 • 27 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE
IRISH TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR IRISH BOOK AWARDS NOVEL OF THE YEAR
A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE NEW YORK TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, BIG ISSUE, i, THE ATLANTIC and LITERARY HUB
'A true wonder' Max Porter
'Beautifully written’ Guardian
It’s late one night at the Spanish port of Algeciras and two fading Irish gangsters are waiting on the boat from Tangier. A lover has been lost, a daughter has gone missing, their world has come asunder – can it be put together again?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A pair of Irish drug runners who've seen better days haunt a ferry terminal in southern Spain in search of a missing woman, in Barry's grim and crackling latest (after Beatlebone). Maurice Hearne and Charlie Redmond had a long and profitable run in drug smuggling, but now, with both just past 50, they are out of the business after a decline in their fortunes. The two stalk the ferry terminal in search of Maurice's daughter, Dilly, whom they haven't seen for three years but believe will be showing up on a ferry there, either coming from or going to Tangier. As the men wait and scan the crowds, they reminisce on better days and an unfortunately textbook betrayal, and flashbacks to pivotal moments in Maurice's adult life reveal a torturous history. Whether Dilly is actually Maurice's daughter is an animating question of the narrative, along with what the men's true intentions are. Barry is a writer of the first rate, and his prose is at turns lean and lyrical, but always precise. Though some scenes land as stiff and schematic, the characters' banter is wildly and inventively coarse, and something to behold. As far as bleak Irish fiction goes, this is black tar heroin.
Customer Reviews
Beautifully written
A touching and moving story. Kevin Barry delivers once again.
Round about midnight
Author
Irish. Has published two collections of short stories, and the novel ‘City of Bohane,’ which won the 2013 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. ‘Night Boat’ was long-listed for this year’s Booker.
Premise
Ageing, Irish criminals hanging around a ferry terminal in southern Spain, late at night, waiting for...Hint: not the night boat to Cairo. They reminisce.
Plot
Maurice and Charlie used to be drug smugglers, and people traffickers, among other things. They have a tip off that Maurice’s estranged daughter (or not) Dilly, who is a small time drug smuggler herself, is going to board the ferry to Tangiers, or get off it: one or the other. Communication with the Spanish speaker in the office at the terminal is fraught to say the least, which is a pity because Maurice and Charlie are colourful communicators.
Characters
The above noted protagonists, Maurice’s partner (and Charlie’s occasional lover) Cynthia, who is mother to Dilly. The others are walk ons. Our boys have done some bad, bad things, but they’re likeable Irish rogues and raconteurs despite that. Probably not particularly likeable for their victims, I admit, but still.
Narrative
Waiting for Godot gets mentioned in dispatches about, or at least in reviews of, this. Two dudes are waiting, I grant you, but that’s about it. The book reads a bit like a film script with something Tarantino-esque about it. Verbal exchanges are two or three line paragraphs without punctuation or other indication who is speaking. You’ve got to read what they’re saying to work that out. Mr Barry’s command of language and vernacular is superb. This is all kinds of funny from quiet chuckle to belly laugh. Violent too, of course. You’ve been warned.
Bottom line
I would have put this on the Booker short list, ditto for ‘Lanny’ by Max Porter, which only goes to prove, yet again, that I talk through my hat.