Synopses & Reviews
A stunning new novel from the two-time Man Booker shortlisted author of The Secret Scripture
In this highly anticipated new novel, Irishman Jack McNulty is a temporary gentleman”an Irishman whose commission in the British army in World War II was never permanent. Sitting in his lodgings in Accra, Ghana, in 1957, hes writing the story of his life with desperate urgency. He cannot take one step further without examining all the extraordinary events that he has seen. A lifetime of war and world travelas a soldier in World War II, an engineer, a UN observerhas brought him to this point. But the memory that weighs heaviest on his heart is that of the beautiful Mai Kirwan, and their tempestuous, heartbreaking marriage. Mai was once the great beauty of Sligo, a magnetic yet unstable woman who, after sharing a life with Jack, gradually slipped from his grasp.
Award-winning author Sebastian Barrys The Temporary Gentleman is the sixth book in his cycle of separate yet interconnected novels that brilliantly reimagine characters from Barrys own family.
Review
Praise for
The Temporary Gentleman:
“One of the best writers in the English language....[Barrys] soul-wrenching narratives and incantatory prose...are powerful canvases of the human spirit.”—Marie Arana, The Washington Post
“Barrys prose has a dreamlike quality....The raw elegance of his storytelling has its own beauty.”—Booklist
Praise for A Long Long Way:
“A deeply moving story of courage and fidelity.”—J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize-winning author of Disgrace
“Barry succeeds admirably in creating complex individuals who find themselves trapped in a brutal reality.”—Los Angeles Times
Praise for On Canaan's Side:
“Sebastian Barry's handling of voice and cadence is masterly. His fictional universe is filled with life, quiet truth and exquisite intimacy; it is also fully alert to the power and irony of history. In evoking Lilly Bere, he has created a most memorable character.”—Colm Tóibín, author of the Costa Novel Award-winning Brooklyn
“A story of love and loss, as Irish as the white heather and as big-hearted as America itself.”—Helen Simonson, New York Times bestselling author of Major Pettigrews Last Stand
“A marvel of empathy and tact.”—Joseph ONeill, author of the PEN/Faulkner Award winning novel Netherland
Praise for The Secret Scripture
“Prose of often startling beauty.”—Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy
“Language of surpassing beauty….It is like a song, with all the pulse of the Irish language.”—The New York Times
“Luminous and lyrical.”—O, The Oprah Magazine
Praise for The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty:
“A symphony of a novel, and youll sing along and wander…into the next century.”—Frank McCourt, author of Angelas Ashes
“[Barrys] words have a stony allure of the Irish poets and the lyrical pull of an epic storyteller.”—The Boston Globe
Review
"Annie's passionate observations and shifting moods-rendered in dense prose that's close to poetry-fuel this fine novel." —
The New York Times Book Review
"A subtle but powerful novel of a spinster's life in the Irish countryside rises to great emotional heights...this is a deliciously poetic book." —The Washington Post
Synopsis
Hailed by the
San Francisco Chronicle as "the finest book to come out of Europe this year,"
The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty is acclaimed Irish playwright Sebastian Barry's lyrical tale of a fugitive everyman.
For Eneas McNulty, a happy, innocent childhood in County Sligo in the early 1900s gives way to an Ireland wracked by violence and conflict. Unable to find work in the depressed times after World War I, Eneas joins the British-led police force, the Royal Irish Constabularya decision that alters the course of his life. Branded a traitor by Irish nationalists and pursued by IRA hitmen, Eneas is forced to flee his homeland, his family, and Viv, the woman he loves. His wandering terminates on the Isle of Dogs, a haven for sailors, where a lifetime of loss is redeemed by a final act of generosity. The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty is the story of a lost man and a compelling saga that illuminates Ireland's complex history.
Synopsis
It is 1959 in Wicklow, Ireland, and Annie and her cousin Sarah are living and working together to keep Sarah's small farm running. Suddenly, Annie's young niece and nephew are left in their care.
Unprepared for the chaos that the two children inevitably bring, but nervously excited nonetheless, Annie finds the interruption of her normal life and her last chance at happiness complicated further by the attention being paid to Sarah by a local man with his eye on the farm.
A summer of adventure, pain, delight, and, ultimately, epiphany unfolds for both the children and their caretakers in this poignant and exquisitely told story of innocence, loss, and reconciliation.
About the Author
Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. His plays include Boss Grady's Boys (1988), The Steward of Christendom (1995), Our Lady of Sligo (1998), The Pride of Parnell Street (2007), and Dallas Sweetman (2008). Among his novels are The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (1998), Annie Dunne (2002) and A Long Long Way (2005), the latter shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His poetry includes The Water-Colourist (1982), Fanny Hawke Goes to the Mainland Forever (1989) and The Pinkening Boy (2005). His awards include the Irish-America Fund Literary Award, The Christopher Ewart-Biggs Prize, the London Critics Circle Award, The Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize, and Costa Awards for Best Novel and Book of the Year. He lives in Wicklow with his wife Ali, and three children, Merlin, Coral, and Tobias.