Old God's Time

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 BOOKER PRIZE

"You should be reading Sebastian Barry. [He] has a special understanding of the human heart." --Adam Begley, The Atlantic

"Combining verbal exuberance and narrative intricacy, Barry reimagines the hauntings of Irish history." --Giles Harvey, The New Yorker

"This is an unforgettable novel from one of our finest writers." --Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain

From the two-time Booker Prize finalist, a dazzlingly written novel exploring love, memory, grief, and long-buried secrets

Recently retired policeman Tom Kettle is settling into the quiet of his new home, a lean-to annexed to a Victorian castle overlooking the Irish Sea. For months he has barely seen a soul, catching only glimpses of his eccentric landlord and a nervous young mother who has moved in next door. Occasionally, fond memories return, of his family, his beloved wife June and their two children, Winnie and Joe.

But when two former colleagues turn up at his door with questions about a decades-old case, one which Tom never quite came to terms with, he finds himself pulled into the darkest currents of his past.

A beautiful, haunting novel, in which nothing is quite as it seems, Old God's Time is about what we live through, what we live with, and what may survive of us.

Author: Sebastian Barry
Publisher: Viking
Published: 03/21/2023
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.82lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.88w x 0.98d
ISBN: 9780593296103
Award: Man Booker Prize - Nominee

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 10/01/2022 pg. 2
Publishers Weekly 01/02/2023
Library Journal 01/01/2023 pg. 81
Kirkus Reviews 02/01/2023
Booklist 02/15/2023 pg. 21
Shelf Awareness 04/07/2023

About the Author
Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. He is the author of eight previous novels, as well as numerous plays. He is the first novelist to twice win the Costa Book of the Year award, for Days Without End and The Secret Scripture, has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, for A Long Long Way and The Secret Scripture, and has twice been longlisted for the Booker Prize, for Days Without End and On Canaan's Side. He was the Laureate for Irish Fiction from 2018-2021, and lives in County Wicklow, Ireland.