Night Boat to Tangier: A Novel (Unabridged)
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3.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
One of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2019
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, Lit Hub, The Millions, The Paris Review, and NPR
No. 1 Irish Times Bestseller
Longlisted for The Booker Prize
From the acclaimed author of the international sensations City of Bohane and Beatlebone, a striking and gorgeous new novel of two aging criminals at the tail ends of their damage-filled careers. A superbly melancholic melody of a novel full of beautiful phrases and terrible men.
In the dark waiting room of the ferry terminal in the sketchy Spanish port of Algeciras, two aging Irishmen -- Maurice Hearne and Charlie Redmond, longtime partners in the lucrative and dangerous enterprise of smuggling drugs -- sit at night, none too patiently. It is October 23, 2018, and they are expecting Maurice's estranged daughter, Dilly, to either arrive on a boat coming from Tangier or depart on one heading there. This nocturnal vigil will initiate an extraordinary journey back in time to excavate their shared history of violence, romance, mutual betrayals and serial exiles, rendered with the dark humor and the hardboiled Hibernian lyricism that have made Kevin Barry one of the most striking and admired fiction writers at work today.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Who ever thought listening to a pair of lifelong criminals reminisce could be so entertaining? Irish author Kevin Barry’s captivating novel begins with two grizzled, fiftysomething men passing the night at a ferry terminal in Algeciras, Spain. Their names are Maurice and Charlie, and with their gnarled faces and cocksure attitudes, it’s no surprise they’re drug smugglers. We didn’t exactly fall in love with Kevin Barry’s criminal protagonists—we fell in love with their conversations about all the dangerous, thrilling, and poignant moments from their pasts. From dealing drugs in Cork to running from thugs in Barcelona to Maurice’s experience with love, Barry does a great job hooking us and making us reflect on issues of family, morality, and regret. Do men like this deserve our sympathy—after everything they’ve done? Fans of Roddy Doyle and Frank McCourt will love this wild, dialogue-driven story about hard men letting their guards down.
