Publishers Weekly
★ 05/20/2024
This rip-roaring western from Barry (Night Boat to Tangier) chronicles the misadventures of an opium-smoking Irishman. The story begins in 1891 Butte, Mont., where reckless Tom Rourke senses “the approach of a dangerous fate.” He fancies himself a poet and balladeer, and to pay for his booze and dope, he writes letters to prospective brides on behalf of illiterate men. He also spends a lot of time admiring himself in saloon mirrors (“He wore the felt slouch hat at a wistful angle and the reefer jacket of mossgreen tweed and a black canvas shirt and in his eyes dimly gleaming the lyric poetry of an early grave and he was satisfied with the inspection”). After he meets Polly Gallagher, a mail-order bride from Chicago, the two trade lines of poetry and begin a passionate and chaotic affair. They burn down a boardinghouse, rob the safe, steal a horse, and head west across Montana to Idaho, with a posse in pursuit and tragedy in tow. The action is rendered in crisp and gritty prose, and the sensual descriptions of Tom and Polly’s lovemaking are gloriously over-the-top. The pleasure never lets up in Barry’s masterful novel. Agent: Lucy Luck, C&W. (July)
From the Publisher
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE LA TIMES, THE GUARDIAN, THE NEW STATESMAN, THE IRISH TIMES, THE JOURNAL, AND THE OBSERVER
"All that should be required for you to saddle up and ride hard toward your nearest bookstore on July 9 is this: Kevin Barry does Deadwood...Barry never disappoints, but this one is a pure pleasure. A thrilling, tumescent, poetically vulgar, big-hearted romp of a novel…utterly electrifying."— LitHub
"It takes a sublime artist like Kevin Barry to map the wildest outposts of the human heart. He captures his poet bandit's spirit through language that is consistently original, consistently exhilarating. "
—Claire Kilroy
"An absolute belter of a book."
—Anne Enright, author of The Gathering
"Rip-roaring...The pleasure never lets up in Barry’s masterful novel."
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“The Irish writer’s humor and prose magic give the genre’s conventions a refreshing spin…Barry’s fans will be delighted and many a newbie beguiled.”
— Kirkus (starred review)
“Rollicking … Barry’s style seems magnificently effortless as Tom and Polly meet some strange and curious characters on their travels, and it seems Barry can make anything compelling. A sterling work of historical fiction and a picaresque love story that is brutal, hilarious, and fabulously entertaining.”
— Booklist (starred review)
“Holy damn, it’s good.”
—David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas
“Barry’s sentences dazzle like lightning strikes yet he is equally gifted as a storyteller. Humorous, though ultimately profoundly moving, The Heart in Winter further confirms Barry’s place as one of our greatest contemporary writers.
–Ron Rash, author of Serena
“Another bloody brilliant little symphony from Kevin Barry”
—Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers
“I was spellbound…Funny, brutal, romantic and cinematic.”
—The Bookseller
"A sterling work of historical fiction and a picaresque love story that is brutal, hilarious, and fabulously entertaining."
— Booklist (starred review)
‘Wondrous and bold. I'm in awe of Kevin Barry and endlessly inspired by his work’
—Lisa McInerney, author of The Rules of Revelation
"Kevin Barry lights out for the territory and once again comes back with a shining nugget of gold. The Heart in Winter is a glorious and haunted yarn, with all the elements – the doomed lovers, the bounty hunters, the knife-fights and whisky-soaked songs – brought to mysterious life by the heft and polish of the Barry sentence. Marvelous."
— Jon McGregor, author of If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
"A haunting, hypnotic love story of two damaged souls. Barry's talent is breath-taking—he is a true original and, once again, words obey his call. This is a propulsive read from a writer at the height of his powers."
— Mary Costello, author of Academy Street
“[B]y turns funny and tragic, full of typically outrageous figures and sublime writing.”
— The Observer
“Barry’s voice…propels us through [his] work, through paragraphs punctuated by turns of phrase that deliver little jolts of pleasure.”
— Francine Prose, author of A Changed Man
