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The Heart in Winter
Award-winning writer Kevin Barry’s first novel set in America, a savagely funny and achingly romantic tale of young lovers on the lam in 1890s Montana.
October 1891. A hard winter approaches across the Rocky Mountains. The city of Butte, Montana is rich on copper mines and rampant with vice and debauchery among a hard-living crowd of immigrant Irish workers. Here we find Tom Rourke, a young poet and ballad-maker of the town, but also a doper, a drinker, and a fearsome degenerate. Just as he feels his life is heading nowhere fast, Polly Gillespie arrives in town as the new bride of the extremely devout mine captain Long Anthony Harrington. A thunderbolt love affair takes spark between Tom and Polly and they strike out west on a stolen horse, moving through the badlands of Montana and Idaho, and briefly an idyll of wild romance perfects itself. But a posse of deranged Cornish gunmen are soon in hot pursuit and closing in fast. With everything to lose and the safety and anonymity of San Francisco still a distant speck on their horizon, the choices they make will haunt them for the rest of their lives.
In this love story for the ages—lyrical, profane and propulsive—Kevin Barry has once again demonstrated himself to be a master stylist, an unrivalled humourist, and a true poet of the human heart.
October 1891. A hard winter approaches across the Rocky Mountains. The city of Butte, Montana is rich on copper mines and rampant with vice and debauchery among a hard-living crowd of immigrant Irish workers. Here we find Tom Rourke, a young poet and ballad-maker of the town, but also a doper, a drinker, and a fearsome degenerate. Just as he feels his life is heading nowhere fast, Polly Gillespie arrives in town as the new bride of the extremely devout mine captain Long Anthony Harrington. A thunderbolt love affair takes spark between Tom and Polly and they strike out west on a stolen horse, moving through the badlands of Montana and Idaho, and briefly an idyll of wild romance perfects itself. But a posse of deranged Cornish gunmen are soon in hot pursuit and closing in fast. With everything to lose and the safety and anonymity of San Francisco still a distant speck on their horizon, the choices they make will haunt them for the rest of their lives.
In this love story for the ages—lyrical, profane and propulsive—Kevin Barry has once again demonstrated himself to be a master stylist, an unrivalled humourist, and a true poet of the human heart.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published July 9, 2024
About the author
Kevin Barry
75 books1,034 followersKevin Barry is an Irish writer. He is the author of two collections of short stories, and the novel City of Bohane, which was the winner of the 2013 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 499 reviews
May 24, 2024
It’s 1891 in Butte, Montana, where our protagonists Tom Rourke and Polly Gillespie’s first meeting takes place, a meeting that sees them inexplicably drawn together, even though Polly is married to someone else.
This small mining town of mainly Irish immigrants is a place full of vice and debauchery, and it’s where Polly has recently exchanged vows with devout Long Anthony Harrington, owner of a copper mine. Polly soon discovers that Harrington ties up his own wrists and whips himself into a frenzy over his love of Jesus. This is an arranged marriage and it’s clear from the start that this is not going to work for Polly. However, when she meets Tom Rourke, it’s as if all the planets align, and they need each other as much as they need to draw breath!
Tom and Polly leave town on a stolen horse and with $600 stolen cash. Headed west, they hope to leave Butte and Harrington far behind, but with a manhunt underway, consisting of a posse of deranged Cornish gunmen, every step takes them closer to danger, and that’s a price they may have to pay for their forbidden love.
“There she was with Tom Rourke hand in hand in terrible love in the dead of night and the forest deep looking up to the sky and all at once yessir absolutely they could see fires on the moon. Now that there’s a suretell sign, Ding Dong said, that it’s come to a time in your lives you need to act. And the dude Ding Dong, he spoke with this like weird authority”.
The prose used throughout is quite simply beautiful, leading to some vivid imagery of Montana’s harsh winters, while the well fleshed characters leap singing and dancing from the page. A poignant, funny and ultimately entertaining tale of the Old West.
*Thank you to Netgalley and Canongate for an ARC in exchange for an honest unbiased review *
This small mining town of mainly Irish immigrants is a place full of vice and debauchery, and it’s where Polly has recently exchanged vows with devout Long Anthony Harrington, owner of a copper mine. Polly soon discovers that Harrington ties up his own wrists and whips himself into a frenzy over his love of Jesus. This is an arranged marriage and it’s clear from the start that this is not going to work for Polly. However, when she meets Tom Rourke, it’s as if all the planets align, and they need each other as much as they need to draw breath!
Tom and Polly leave town on a stolen horse and with $600 stolen cash. Headed west, they hope to leave Butte and Harrington far behind, but with a manhunt underway, consisting of a posse of deranged Cornish gunmen, every step takes them closer to danger, and that’s a price they may have to pay for their forbidden love.
“There she was with Tom Rourke hand in hand in terrible love in the dead of night and the forest deep looking up to the sky and all at once yessir absolutely they could see fires on the moon. Now that there’s a suretell sign, Ding Dong said, that it’s come to a time in your lives you need to act. And the dude Ding Dong, he spoke with this like weird authority”.
The prose used throughout is quite simply beautiful, leading to some vivid imagery of Montana’s harsh winters, while the well fleshed characters leap singing and dancing from the page. A poignant, funny and ultimately entertaining tale of the Old West.
*Thank you to Netgalley and Canongate for an ARC in exchange for an honest unbiased review *
May 24, 2024
Lewd, crude and really rather good.
May 20, 2024
Kismet
Imagine a beautifully written story about forbidden love, escaped love on the run, the harsh winter landscape of Montana in 1891, a manhunt driven by revenge from a wronged husband, cold, warm, touching, and brutal. The poetically gifted Kevin Barry pens such a literary masterpiece in The Heart in Winter.
In a language that is expressive and poignant, we are drawn to the emotions and plights of the two main characters, Polly Gillespie and Tom Rourke. Polly is a mail-order bride-of-sorts to Anthony Harrington, owner of a copper mine, who habitually self-flagellates in his religious fidelity. Unsurprisingly, Polly finds a more significant attraction to the young Tom Rourke, a loveable degenerate fond of drink, drugs, suicidal tendencies, a naïve opportunist, a photographer and a ballad maker.
Kevin Barry is incredible at weaving desolation and warmth, passion and brutality, fear and love, compelling characters, and a landscape that escapes from the page. His poetic writing flows with a modulated pace that holds the reader’s attention and imagination as the story unfolds.
I want to thank Doubleday Books and NetGalley for providing a free ARC in return for an honest review. The publication date is 9 July 2024, and I highly recommend getting a copy and settling for an exceptional literary read.
Imagine a beautifully written story about forbidden love, escaped love on the run, the harsh winter landscape of Montana in 1891, a manhunt driven by revenge from a wronged husband, cold, warm, touching, and brutal. The poetically gifted Kevin Barry pens such a literary masterpiece in The Heart in Winter.
In a language that is expressive and poignant, we are drawn to the emotions and plights of the two main characters, Polly Gillespie and Tom Rourke. Polly is a mail-order bride-of-sorts to Anthony Harrington, owner of a copper mine, who habitually self-flagellates in his religious fidelity. Unsurprisingly, Polly finds a more significant attraction to the young Tom Rourke, a loveable degenerate fond of drink, drugs, suicidal tendencies, a naïve opportunist, a photographer and a ballad maker.
“And if I met Polly in the WoodsPolly and Tom establish an immediate connection, and considering their respective lives, decide to steal a horse and money and escape unprepared into the wild winter, where they must now stay ahead of a posse led by the ruthless Jago Marrak. Death joins the chase, and remarkable incidents tease us that perhaps their destiny has luck on their side, or is it just a matter of time? Polly and Tom's infatuation for each other keeps them in their own bubble, and you can’t help but hope they are given a chance to be together and explore love across a lifetime.
I would kiss her if I could.
For that’s a thing that would do her good
And a cup of tay in the morn-in”
Kevin Barry is incredible at weaving desolation and warmth, passion and brutality, fear and love, compelling characters, and a landscape that escapes from the page. His poetic writing flows with a modulated pace that holds the reader’s attention and imagination as the story unfolds.
I want to thank Doubleday Books and NetGalley for providing a free ARC in return for an honest review. The publication date is 9 July 2024, and I highly recommend getting a copy and settling for an exceptional literary read.
July 10, 2024
At This Moment His Heart Turned
“A western, with Irish accents,” is how Kevin Barry described his new novel, “The Heart in Winter.” In tone and setting, you can think the HBO series “Deadwood,” although told from a pair of young lovers' hearts rather than saloon owners or lawmen. This is 1891 wild west Butte, Montana, a town where 10,000 men have immigrated from Cork, Ireland to find work in the copper mines. Tough and gritty times.
A rough young degenerate poet, Tom Rourke, is spending his days drenched in alcohol and opium, unsure whether to leave town or just end things altogether. He is earning a few bucks assisting a photographer when a newly married couple come in for a portrait. Tom is floored by the bride, Polly Gillespie, and the world pinwheeled.
“...she got a portrait done and that boy was looking at her so hard it was like he just discovered eyes.”
Instantly in love, there is nothing to do but cast their fate to the wind. Tom robs a brothel, sets fire to it to cover his tracks, and the two of them journey headlong into Montana’s wilderness with only the vaguest of notions how to survive a trek to San Francisco.
Kevin Barry writes like no one else. Paragraphs may be pages long, but it flows smoothly as the poetry, the dialogue, and the humor are just the slightest bit off expectations– it all blends together and creates an odd but authentic world. Tom and Polly are unforgettable characters, too– naive lovers who have gone all in– shrugging off the knowledge that there will probably be consequences to their blind faith. They speak of death often– more of its inevitability than its threat.
I mentioned the TV series Deadwood. That is probably a good barometer if you are unsure if this is your type of reading. The violence, raw humor, and multisyllabic array of curse words will be triggers to some. “Heart in Winter” also shares many of that show’s treasures, as well.
While approaching this book with some optimism, I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Ready for a western adventure, I was enchanted by the prose and the world Kevin Barry conjured. I was probably most impressed with how Tom Rourke began as such an unlikeable stain, only to develop into such a fascinating character over the course of time.
Thank you to Doubleday Books and Netgalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #TheHeartInWinter #NetGalley
“A western, with Irish accents,” is how Kevin Barry described his new novel, “The Heart in Winter.” In tone and setting, you can think the HBO series “Deadwood,” although told from a pair of young lovers' hearts rather than saloon owners or lawmen. This is 1891 wild west Butte, Montana, a town where 10,000 men have immigrated from Cork, Ireland to find work in the copper mines. Tough and gritty times.
A rough young degenerate poet, Tom Rourke, is spending his days drenched in alcohol and opium, unsure whether to leave town or just end things altogether. He is earning a few bucks assisting a photographer when a newly married couple come in for a portrait. Tom is floored by the bride, Polly Gillespie, and the world pinwheeled.
“...she got a portrait done and that boy was looking at her so hard it was like he just discovered eyes.”
Instantly in love, there is nothing to do but cast their fate to the wind. Tom robs a brothel, sets fire to it to cover his tracks, and the two of them journey headlong into Montana’s wilderness with only the vaguest of notions how to survive a trek to San Francisco.
Kevin Barry writes like no one else. Paragraphs may be pages long, but it flows smoothly as the poetry, the dialogue, and the humor are just the slightest bit off expectations– it all blends together and creates an odd but authentic world. Tom and Polly are unforgettable characters, too– naive lovers who have gone all in– shrugging off the knowledge that there will probably be consequences to their blind faith. They speak of death often– more of its inevitability than its threat.
I mentioned the TV series Deadwood. That is probably a good barometer if you are unsure if this is your type of reading. The violence, raw humor, and multisyllabic array of curse words will be triggers to some. “Heart in Winter” also shares many of that show’s treasures, as well.
While approaching this book with some optimism, I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Ready for a western adventure, I was enchanted by the prose and the world Kevin Barry conjured. I was probably most impressed with how Tom Rourke began as such an unlikeable stain, only to develop into such a fascinating character over the course of time.
Thank you to Doubleday Books and Netgalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #TheHeartInWinter #NetGalley
July 8, 2024
Oh, Kevin Barry's writing! Every sentence is a gem, every one I could have underlined except that I listened to the audio book (read exceptionally well by the author). It's winter in 1890s Montana. Tom is an Irish wastrel, drinking his way through the cowboy saloons, earning a bit of money writing letters for men to get mail-order brides from back East, and working in a photographer's studio part time. There he meets Polly, a mail-order bride having her photograph taken with her new husband. Tom and Polly fall in love, burn down a house, steal some money and a horse and ride out with a posse on their tail. It's very wild west and great fun, and as I said, brilliantly written. It's a contender for my books of the year, the only things that could have worked better was that the two high points of the novel were not on the page, but told as reported stories, which was a shame - I would have felt more to live through them with the characters. I wonder if Barry did that for a reason. Highly recommended.
January 22, 2024
There she was with Tom Rourke hand in hand in terrible love in the dead of night and the forest deep looking up to the sky and all at once yessir absolutely they could see fires on the moon. Now that there’s a suretell sign, Ding Dong said, that it’s come to a time in your lives you need to act. And the dude Ding Dong he spoke with this like weird authority.
Little river was moving some ice already and long picks of it gleamed like running knives in the dark. They walked on and further on. It was such a clear night and all the stars were out. It was very cold. They sat there together in the wood all huddled up in their coats and shivered and they were miserable in love and they held on to each other for a long time out of the need and they could hear each other breathing.
There is no decision, he said, we’ve just got to be together and she didn’t have to tell him he was right about that.
This is so up my alley: I’ve said many times that I love an Irish storyteller, and as it turns out, just maybe I love a Western, too. Set in October of 1891 in Butte, Montana (“screeching and crazy and loud as the depths of hell”), The Heart of Winter is at its core a love story — star-crossed, soul-struck, forbidden love — and in the hands of Kevin Barry, this story is funny, surreal, and tense. Like a mashup of everything I loved in Days Without End, The Sisters Brothers, and The Luminaries, this novel was thoroughly entertaining, emotionally touching, and delightful in its language; I could not have asked for more. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)
He thought of them now as he lay dim-eyed and roostered. It was in a mood of sadness and fun combined that he thought of the pair. My-name-Tom and my-name-Polly. They were giddy and green and always kinda jumpin. They were in love with each other too much. They were drawn by natures twined and persuadable to a terrain vague was what the Frenchman of the olden times would call it. It was to a world between worlds they were drawn. They were headed into this unknowable place without map to it nor the sense to be afraid even and they were in this regard heroical. Death hovered close by the lovers always. It was around them like a charge on the air. It was like a blue gunpowder waft. It was like electricity. They had an aspect of cool affront to life and so it was deathwards they were drawn —
Or at least that’s how the philosophic Métis was figuring things.
Approaching thirty, Irish born Tom Rourke has grown up in Montana territory: he works as an assistant photographer, writes love letters on behalf of illiterate miners, and spends his evenings drinking hard, smoking opium, and visiting his favourite sex workers. Polly Gillespie — a mail order bride who isn’t quite as young or innocent as she had portrayed herself in her letters — comes into the photography studio for a portrait with her new husband, mine boss Long Ant’ny Harrington, and one glance between Tom and Polly cements between them that they were meant to be together. As the publisher’s blurb states (skip this if you want to go in blind like I did), the pair runs away together but Harrington hires some rough “Jacks” to hunt them down, and what follows is half romance/half tense and atmospheric adventure story.
It was hard to choose quotes for this review because the magic comes in long passages, rather than pithy bites, but I did find the whole thing magical. The dialogue is snappy, the setting is gorgeously rendered, the characters (and especially the supporting characters) are unique individuals, and the plot is unpredictable. The romance is believable, but over everything, is a layer of fate and enchantment and access to otherworldly powers:
She leaned in close then with her claw to his chest and whispered some crazy stuff and he laughed and he laughed harder again the stranger the words got. It was like she was speaking in the tongue but it had no connection with any god you might think of. She just let it come from inside. She didn’t even think about it. These were words that came from a place that was deep inside. A place that was before our world and time. That was a deepdown place and forest-like. And he laughed and shook a bit and she let the words come with her claw to his chest and she was raking him pretty good. She let him know they both came from this same place. We can be in it still, she said. We can be in it whenever we need to be and we can always talk to each other there. He was on top of her then biting at her neck and breast and they surely understood each other and the whole thing was just the kind of luck that don’t even come once in a lifetime for most.
Some paragraphs took reading through two or three times before I could make sense of them, and I don’t know if you’d call this writing style heavily ironic, post-modern, or straight-up surrealism, but I was thoroughly entertained, intellectually engaged, and emotionally touched throughout. This may not be to everyone’s tastes, but it suited my own precisely. My favourite by Barry so far.
August 6, 2024
Loved this. Why am I not reading more Kevin Barry ?
I had read Kevin Barry’s 2019 Booker nominated Night boat to Tangier and admired it at the time but his latest novel has turned me into an avid fan.
The Heart in Winter is essentially a Western, set in Butte, Montana in the 1890s but that description does it a disservice. It’s a writing masterclass in building atmosphere and character, it also contains some delightfully inventive swearing.
The Guardian review nailed it for me with this description:
“ 𝘉𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘶𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘱, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥. 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘢 𝘸𝘦𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘤 𝘔𝘤𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘍𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘯 𝘖’𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯; 𝘢 𝘸𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘐𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘴; 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥𝘺 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘦 “
Certainly one of my top reads of the year so far - 5 stars.🌟
I had read Kevin Barry’s 2019 Booker nominated Night boat to Tangier and admired it at the time but his latest novel has turned me into an avid fan.
The Heart in Winter is essentially a Western, set in Butte, Montana in the 1890s but that description does it a disservice. It’s a writing masterclass in building atmosphere and character, it also contains some delightfully inventive swearing.
The Guardian review nailed it for me with this description:
“ 𝘉𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘶𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘱, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥. 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘢 𝘸𝘦𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘤 𝘔𝘤𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘍𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘯 𝘖’𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯; 𝘢 𝘸𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘐𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘴; 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥𝘺 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘦 “
Certainly one of my top reads of the year so far - 5 stars.🌟
July 15, 2024
"He said are you happy where you are right now? When you're here I am, she said, and right then she knew that they were falling."
This lyrical tale of star-crossed lovers is set in the Wild West. The Butte, Montana of 1891 is a lawless cesspool populated by vagabonds and ne'er-do-wells, none fitting that description better than Tom Rourke. Tom is a drunk and a dope fiend, though he does have some poetry in his heart, writing love letters to prospective wives on behalf of local uncultured gold miners in exchange for a few bob. He also assists a local portrait photographer until a day arrives that changes everything. Mining boss Anthony Harrington enters the studio with Polly Gillespie, his new wife, and when Tom sees her he is undone. Making it his mission to win her affection is easier than expected, as she is no angel herself and her husband is a bore with a disturbing line in self-flagellation. The pair decide to steal some money and head for California, but Harrington won't be made a fool of so easy, and he hires some heavies to track them down and bring Polly back.
There is nothing new in the subject matter of this novel - the Wild West is a familiar setting, and the notion of doomed lovers has been around since Romeo and Juliet. What makes it come alive is Kevin Barry's magical prose. His dark, playful humour and knack for a memorable phrase elevate this story into something special. It brought to mind that wonderful TV series Deadwood: beautiful, almost Shakespearean dialogue emanating from the roughest of folk in a hellhole that God seems to have forsaken. Though they appear to have luck on their side initially, we know that it probably won't end well for Tom and Polly, and can't help reading on to find out. Existing fans of Barry will be delighted with this gripping, chaotic adventure and it also deserves to bring him a new legion of followers.
December 20, 2023
Absolutely classic Kevin Barry. Summoning the ghost of Mark Twain, he turns his grandiose campfire storytelling to the American West.
Of course it's glorious.
Of course it's glorious.
June 17, 2024
Lovers in a Dangerous Time
Review of the NetGalley eBook ARC downloaded June 7, 2024 of the Penguin Random House / Knopf Canada hardcover / eBook and the Random House Audio audiobook to be released July 9, 2024.
This was a propulsive western saga with two star-crossed lovers making a break for a new life out of the mining town of Butte, Montana in 1891. Tom Rourke is an Irish immigrant who could not cut it in the mines and now works as a photographer's assistant while doping and drinking in his spare time while writing ballads and the occasional letter for illiterate hopeful husbands in search of a mail-order bride. Into his life walks Polly Gillespie, the newly wed wife of mining captain Anthony Harrington and an infatuation soon follows which is returned when Polly is repulsed by her new husband's self-abasement rituals.
A plan of escape unfolds and soon the lovers are on the run with a stolen horse and the savings from a rooming house. But Harrington enlists a rather perverse posse of three Cornishmen to make pursuit. The lovers carelessly linger on their road to San Francisco when they come upon an idyllic abandoned cabin, allowing the posse to close in. Tom is beaten and left for dead while Polly is abducted. Now Tom is the one in pursuit to attempt to save his new love or die trying.
This was one crazed adventure with a compulsive flow to the words, often written in a rough frontier language in a mix of old world balladry and new world slang. It was impossible to stop reading as the chapters unfolded with cliffhangers which then continued with the further suspense building through flashbacks and flashforwards. The mark of a true 5-star is when you simply have to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next.
A view of Butte, Montana in the late 19th century. Image sourced from the Times Literary Supplement.
Soundtrack
I immediately thought of the Bruce Cockburn song "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" from the Stealing Fire (1984) album. A 2011 live performance of the song can be seen on YouTube here.
Trivia and Links
There is no mention of it in the Acknowledgements but I have to imagine that the escaping lovers theme must have been at least partially inspired by the 10th century Irish mythology of the lovers Diarmuid and Gráinne which is also considered to be the basis for the later 12th century Tristan and Isolde story.
Review of the NetGalley eBook ARC downloaded June 7, 2024 of the Penguin Random House / Knopf Canada hardcover / eBook and the Random House Audio audiobook to be released July 9, 2024.
This was a propulsive western saga with two star-crossed lovers making a break for a new life out of the mining town of Butte, Montana in 1891. Tom Rourke is an Irish immigrant who could not cut it in the mines and now works as a photographer's assistant while doping and drinking in his spare time while writing ballads and the occasional letter for illiterate hopeful husbands in search of a mail-order bride. Into his life walks Polly Gillespie, the newly wed wife of mining captain Anthony Harrington and an infatuation soon follows which is returned when Polly is repulsed by her new husband's self-abasement rituals.
A plan of escape unfolds and soon the lovers are on the run with a stolen horse and the savings from a rooming house. But Harrington enlists a rather perverse posse of three Cornishmen to make pursuit. The lovers carelessly linger on their road to San Francisco when they come upon an idyllic abandoned cabin, allowing the posse to close in. Tom is beaten and left for dead while Polly is abducted. Now Tom is the one in pursuit to attempt to save his new love or die trying.
This was one crazed adventure with a compulsive flow to the words, often written in a rough frontier language in a mix of old world balladry and new world slang. It was impossible to stop reading as the chapters unfolded with cliffhangers which then continued with the further suspense building through flashbacks and flashforwards. The mark of a true 5-star is when you simply have to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next.
A view of Butte, Montana in the late 19th century. Image sourced from the Times Literary Supplement.
Soundtrack
I immediately thought of the Bruce Cockburn song "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" from the Stealing Fire (1984) album. A 2011 live performance of the song can be seen on YouTube here.
Trivia and Links
There is no mention of it in the Acknowledgements but I have to imagine that the escaping lovers theme must have been at least partially inspired by the 10th century Irish mythology of the lovers Diarmuid and Gráinne which is also considered to be the basis for the later 12th century Tristan and Isolde story.
September 8, 2024
This book is not at all what I expected when I picked it up. It says “funny,” but I don’t think there was one funny paragraph in this book. It’s a sad melancholy book about two people who meet and instantly fall in love but she’s a mail order bride wed to someone else so they leave and are hunted down. There was a few moments I really enjoyed the writing but ultimately this book was not for me.
July 16, 2024
This is my kind of love story. Frantic. Blind. Impossible.
April 22, 2024
The Heart in winter reads like a river-sometimes slow and meandering, other times swift, and breaking over the rocks. And always beautiful scenery. All the time I was absolutely engrossed in this story of mad love.
Kevin Barry has caught a vision of the old west, and transformed it into literature of the highest order. Highest possible recommendation.
Kevin Barry has caught a vision of the old west, and transformed it into literature of the highest order. Highest possible recommendation.
June 1, 2024
The eggs went down controversially. The coffee began to straighten the affair. He rolled a smoke to find the hands were passable steady by this stage. Once more and gauntly he considered his situation. He wrote songs for the bars and letters for the lonesome. He was assistant to the photographer Lonegan Crane, a lunatic, of Leytonstone, East London, originally. His days had been passing with no weight to them but he knew now that fate would soon arrest him.
The Heart of Winter is Kevin Barry's fourth novel after
His memorable debut City of Bohane - a steam-punk graphic novel, but where the pictures were painted in words. This showcased Barry's Joycean love of the auditory power of language - with prose that almost demanded to be read out loud. The most memorable parts of the novel were the highly visual descriptions of the characters and the outlandish costumes that they wear (and which they change on a daily basis), although the plot itself took rather a back seat.
Beatlebone - which required rather more interest in John Lennon that I had, and I was unconvinced by the metafictional but rather artificial authorial intervention in the text
Night Boat to Tangier, a more contemporary and realist version of City of Bohane, although still trademark Barry - who has said "realist literary fiction is, of course, the hoariest (and dullest) of all the genres" - highlights including the Sexy Beast bickering between the two main gangsters Maurice and Charlie, and the simple but powerful backstory.
Barry himself described City of Bohane as "a weird retro-fitted future-Western, with lots of gratuitous swearing, hideous violence, perverse sex and powerful opiates", which rather overstated the gratuity/violence/sex, and The Heart in Winter is a more conventional Western, of the Celtic variety, sitting somewhere between City of Bohane and Night Boat to Tangier in style.
As always the prose is the main attraction - this description of two characters' and their clothes could be lifted straight from City of Bohane:
The pair had a pretty natty mountain pirate air about them. Janeaux was wiry and compact like a strong prodigious boy and wore a small hooped gold earring in the left ear and had black, black eyes under a stovepipe hat tipped to a cheeky and defiant lean and long hair and boots of pointed toe and coloured rags for scarves tied about the neck and wrists. Some silver chains. Morasse stood skinny as a pipecleaner more than six feet tall and wore a pair of fine duck pants he was proud of and a fur hat out of the Quebecois reaches and long hair and much of a similar motley to his companion in terms of fanciful rag-scarves and a musical laugh that sounded like a flute of some rudimentary kind and was sounded often.
And this from a bar in the copper mining town of Butte, Montana ("The most Irish town in America" per the Irish Times), where the novel is set, in the late 19th century, amongst the Irish diaspora:
Who would be the next to join them? A fine morningtime question to chew over in Butte at that hour of our desperate lives, and the Hibernian brethren bowed their heads to it sombrely. In sympathy with them Fat Con moved like a sweet old ma behind the counter. He cut off the sausage links and the strips of bacon and flung them with artistic expression to the grill. He cut white loaves on the slicer and chopped the liver into neat hanks with a murderer’s relish. He was a man in his time. He was alive to his place and task. He swung his great belly from grill to counter and back again and there was grace to it. Dankly his occult coffee simmered and there were canteen pots of tay stewed black as porter. Dead bloodshot eyes sat in a row for him along the high stools and every last set of them was beholden. He rendered the fats and toasted the breads. It was a pale November sky beyond on North Main Street and Con Sullivan cracked his eggs with princely flourishes. He was dainty about his work as a jewel-maker. An icy gust of the wind assaulted the room when some big fool eejit stepped in and left the door wide open for the North Main view.
Con Sullivan roared–Ah bang out the fucken thing wouldn’t ya and don’t have us slaughtered altogether!
It was Stephen Devane, the sheriff, who stepped back and closed the door gently.
Didn’t see it was yourself, Dev.
This is another great read, although for me not to the standard of Night Boat to Tangier, whose contemporary setting gave it more political resonance, and which gave the two main characters a more compelling backstory, here hinted at but dialled down for more on-page action. And I am perhaps suffering slightly dimishing returns from Barry's work - it would be great to see him do something very different next.
Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC.
The Heart of Winter is Kevin Barry's fourth novel after
His memorable debut City of Bohane - a steam-punk graphic novel, but where the pictures were painted in words. This showcased Barry's Joycean love of the auditory power of language - with prose that almost demanded to be read out loud. The most memorable parts of the novel were the highly visual descriptions of the characters and the outlandish costumes that they wear (and which they change on a daily basis), although the plot itself took rather a back seat.
Beatlebone - which required rather more interest in John Lennon that I had, and I was unconvinced by the metafictional but rather artificial authorial intervention in the text
Night Boat to Tangier, a more contemporary and realist version of City of Bohane, although still trademark Barry - who has said "realist literary fiction is, of course, the hoariest (and dullest) of all the genres" - highlights including the Sexy Beast bickering between the two main gangsters Maurice and Charlie, and the simple but powerful backstory.
Barry himself described City of Bohane as "a weird retro-fitted future-Western, with lots of gratuitous swearing, hideous violence, perverse sex and powerful opiates", which rather overstated the gratuity/violence/sex, and The Heart in Winter is a more conventional Western, of the Celtic variety, sitting somewhere between City of Bohane and Night Boat to Tangier in style.
As always the prose is the main attraction - this description of two characters' and their clothes could be lifted straight from City of Bohane:
The pair had a pretty natty mountain pirate air about them. Janeaux was wiry and compact like a strong prodigious boy and wore a small hooped gold earring in the left ear and had black, black eyes under a stovepipe hat tipped to a cheeky and defiant lean and long hair and boots of pointed toe and coloured rags for scarves tied about the neck and wrists. Some silver chains. Morasse stood skinny as a pipecleaner more than six feet tall and wore a pair of fine duck pants he was proud of and a fur hat out of the Quebecois reaches and long hair and much of a similar motley to his companion in terms of fanciful rag-scarves and a musical laugh that sounded like a flute of some rudimentary kind and was sounded often.
And this from a bar in the copper mining town of Butte, Montana ("The most Irish town in America" per the Irish Times), where the novel is set, in the late 19th century, amongst the Irish diaspora:
Who would be the next to join them? A fine morningtime question to chew over in Butte at that hour of our desperate lives, and the Hibernian brethren bowed their heads to it sombrely. In sympathy with them Fat Con moved like a sweet old ma behind the counter. He cut off the sausage links and the strips of bacon and flung them with artistic expression to the grill. He cut white loaves on the slicer and chopped the liver into neat hanks with a murderer’s relish. He was a man in his time. He was alive to his place and task. He swung his great belly from grill to counter and back again and there was grace to it. Dankly his occult coffee simmered and there were canteen pots of tay stewed black as porter. Dead bloodshot eyes sat in a row for him along the high stools and every last set of them was beholden. He rendered the fats and toasted the breads. It was a pale November sky beyond on North Main Street and Con Sullivan cracked his eggs with princely flourishes. He was dainty about his work as a jewel-maker. An icy gust of the wind assaulted the room when some big fool eejit stepped in and left the door wide open for the North Main view.
Con Sullivan roared–Ah bang out the fucken thing wouldn’t ya and don’t have us slaughtered altogether!
It was Stephen Devane, the sheriff, who stepped back and closed the door gently.
Didn’t see it was yourself, Dev.
This is another great read, although for me not to the standard of Night Boat to Tangier, whose contemporary setting gave it more political resonance, and which gave the two main characters a more compelling backstory, here hinted at but dialled down for more on-page action. And I am perhaps suffering slightly dimishing returns from Barry's work - it would be great to see him do something very different next.
Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC.
July 14, 2024
Kevin Barry's "The Heart in Winter" is a novel that promises much with its intriguing premise but ultimately falls short due to a series of literary missteps. The narrative follows Tom and Polly, two seemingly broken individuals who meet, fall in love almost instantly, and decide to elope, leading to an unexpected manhunt. Despite this promising setup, the novel struggles to deliver a compelling story, hindered by a problematic writing style and inconsistent pacing.
One of the most notable issues with Barry's work is his decision to eschew quotation marks for dialogue. This stylistic choice, which has become increasingly popular in contemporary fiction, often detracts from the readability of the text. In "The Heart in Winter," it renders conversations confusing and blurs the distinction between characters' thoughts and spoken words. For many readers, including myself, this choice feels like an unnecessary affectation rather than a meaningful literary device.
The writing style itself is another hurdle. Barry's prose often comes across as long-winded and disorganized, resembling rambling thoughts more than structured narrative. This approach can be alienating, making it difficult for readers to engage with the story or the characters.
The novel's pacing is equally problematic. The opening chapters rush through the crucial development of Tom and Polly's relationship. They meet, fall in love, and decide to run away together with dizzying speed, leaving no room for genuine chemistry or character development. This hurried beginning makes it hard to invest in their relationship, which is depicted with a profound lack of intimacy. We are told they are in love, but we are never shown why or how this love develops, making their connection feel superficial and unconvincing.
The middle section of the book is its strongest part. Here, Barry finds a more even pacing, and the story becomes genuinely engaging. The narrative slows down enough to allow some character exploration and development, and the stakes of the manhunt add a layer of tension that keeps readers interested. However, just as the book seems to find its footing, it falters again.
The conclusion of "The Heart in Winter" is where the novel's promise completely unravels. The ending lacks resolution and feels almost pointless, leaving readers questioning the purpose of the entire narrative journey. While a tragic ending could have provided a powerful and emotional conclusion, Barry's execution feels more like a damp squib than a poignant finale. The result is a book that ends not with a bang, but with a whimper, leaving readers dissatisfied and questioning the time invested in the story.
Furthermore, the book's description as humorous is baffling. There is little to no humor in the narrative; instead, the tone is predominantly melancholic and bleak. This mischaracterization sets up false expectations and further contributes to the overall sense of disappointment.
In summary, "The Heart in Winter" by Kevin Barry is a novel that had the potential to be compelling but ultimately fails to deliver. The lack of quotation marks, rambling prose, rushed relationship development, and unsatisfying ending all contribute to its downfall. While the middle section shows glimmers of what could have been, the book as a whole never quite reaches its potential. For readers seeking a well-crafted and engaging story, "The Heart in Winter" may prove to be a frustrating experience.
One of the most notable issues with Barry's work is his decision to eschew quotation marks for dialogue. This stylistic choice, which has become increasingly popular in contemporary fiction, often detracts from the readability of the text. In "The Heart in Winter," it renders conversations confusing and blurs the distinction between characters' thoughts and spoken words. For many readers, including myself, this choice feels like an unnecessary affectation rather than a meaningful literary device.
The writing style itself is another hurdle. Barry's prose often comes across as long-winded and disorganized, resembling rambling thoughts more than structured narrative. This approach can be alienating, making it difficult for readers to engage with the story or the characters.
The novel's pacing is equally problematic. The opening chapters rush through the crucial development of Tom and Polly's relationship. They meet, fall in love, and decide to run away together with dizzying speed, leaving no room for genuine chemistry or character development. This hurried beginning makes it hard to invest in their relationship, which is depicted with a profound lack of intimacy. We are told they are in love, but we are never shown why or how this love develops, making their connection feel superficial and unconvincing.
The middle section of the book is its strongest part. Here, Barry finds a more even pacing, and the story becomes genuinely engaging. The narrative slows down enough to allow some character exploration and development, and the stakes of the manhunt add a layer of tension that keeps readers interested. However, just as the book seems to find its footing, it falters again.
The conclusion of "The Heart in Winter" is where the novel's promise completely unravels. The ending lacks resolution and feels almost pointless, leaving readers questioning the purpose of the entire narrative journey. While a tragic ending could have provided a powerful and emotional conclusion, Barry's execution feels more like a damp squib than a poignant finale. The result is a book that ends not with a bang, but with a whimper, leaving readers dissatisfied and questioning the time invested in the story.
Furthermore, the book's description as humorous is baffling. There is little to no humor in the narrative; instead, the tone is predominantly melancholic and bleak. This mischaracterization sets up false expectations and further contributes to the overall sense of disappointment.
In summary, "The Heart in Winter" by Kevin Barry is a novel that had the potential to be compelling but ultimately fails to deliver. The lack of quotation marks, rambling prose, rushed relationship development, and unsatisfying ending all contribute to its downfall. While the middle section shows glimmers of what could have been, the book as a whole never quite reaches its potential. For readers seeking a well-crafted and engaging story, "The Heart in Winter" may prove to be a frustrating experience.
August 4, 2024
3.5 stars. Think Natural Born Killers set in 1890s Montana. The writing is exquisite and the story wild and entertaining. I should have loved this, but for some reason I only liked it. That said, I will definitely try something else by Kevin Barry.
The story: This rip-roaring western chronicles the misadventures of an opium-smoking Irishman. After he meets Polly Gallagher, a mail-order bride from Chicago, the two trade lines of poetry and begin a passionate and chaotic affair.
The story: This rip-roaring western chronicles the misadventures of an opium-smoking Irishman. After he meets Polly Gallagher, a mail-order bride from Chicago, the two trade lines of poetry and begin a passionate and chaotic affair.
June 29, 2024
To inhabit Butte, Montana in 1891 is to live in a place where violence and lawlessness is rife. Many immigrants have been drawn to the town – from Ireland, Cornwall, Wales and beyond – by the prospect of work in the area’s copper mines, or maybe even of striking it rich themselves. It’s a tough life and for many the only way to get through it is with alcohol or drugs supplied by Chinese traders, known as Celestials.
Tom Rourke is a drifter, drunk and opium addict who ekes out a living writing songs, love letters for illiterate miners hoping to attract a bride, and assisting in a photographic studio. It’s how he meets Polly Gillespie, the new bride of mine captain, Anthony Harrington. Polly has her own troubled past and soon discovers her new life as Harrington’s wife is going to bring neither happiness nor fulfilment. There’s a kind of tragic inevitability that Tom and Polly – both flawed, damaged individuals – will be drawn to each other. In fact, Tom has always himself believed he won’t make a good end – ‘What he reckons is you was born to a dark star’ – and has thought about hastening that end. Polly is a survivor, someone who can reinvent herself – and has done. She perhaps comes closest to being her true self with Tom.
In the hands of the author the landscape of 19th century Montana is simultaneously unforgiving but full of beauty. ‘Winter by now was truly the sour landlord of the forest.’ The characters leap off the page whether that’s the fanatically religious Harrington, punishing himself for his own lustful thoughts, or Jago Marrak, a giant of a man and the leader of the trio hired to track down the runaways. There are passages of wonderful prose such as in the chapter entitled ‘Nightmusic’.
‘About this time it became the common perception that trains sounded lonesome, especially in the hours of darkness, and you could not deny it looking across the yards at Pocatello Junction on that rainy December night as the Utah & Northern went out for Salt Lake City and left a long forlorn calling in its wake. The rain came slantwise and harder now across the sheds and the yards and the depot.. There was the distant roll of a piano line as it played in counterpoint to the night train’s fading call. There was some distant jeering also. The quartermoon climbed by slow degrees through the cloudbank to add to the night’s yearnful air and still the beating of the rain came down on the cars of the resting stock and somewhere in the town the jags of a woman’s screeching were cut short.’
The Heart in Winter is a enthralling, skilfully crafted combination of love story and adventure story. I was completely captivated by Tom and Polly’s story which, although you suspect is doomed from the start, you can’t help hoping will turn out differently. ‘…And wasn’t it a remarkable turn of events that showed love and death they co-exist in our violent and sentimental world. They might even depend one on the other.’
Tom Rourke is a drifter, drunk and opium addict who ekes out a living writing songs, love letters for illiterate miners hoping to attract a bride, and assisting in a photographic studio. It’s how he meets Polly Gillespie, the new bride of mine captain, Anthony Harrington. Polly has her own troubled past and soon discovers her new life as Harrington’s wife is going to bring neither happiness nor fulfilment. There’s a kind of tragic inevitability that Tom and Polly – both flawed, damaged individuals – will be drawn to each other. In fact, Tom has always himself believed he won’t make a good end – ‘What he reckons is you was born to a dark star’ – and has thought about hastening that end. Polly is a survivor, someone who can reinvent herself – and has done. She perhaps comes closest to being her true self with Tom.
In the hands of the author the landscape of 19th century Montana is simultaneously unforgiving but full of beauty. ‘Winter by now was truly the sour landlord of the forest.’ The characters leap off the page whether that’s the fanatically religious Harrington, punishing himself for his own lustful thoughts, or Jago Marrak, a giant of a man and the leader of the trio hired to track down the runaways. There are passages of wonderful prose such as in the chapter entitled ‘Nightmusic’.
‘About this time it became the common perception that trains sounded lonesome, especially in the hours of darkness, and you could not deny it looking across the yards at Pocatello Junction on that rainy December night as the Utah & Northern went out for Salt Lake City and left a long forlorn calling in its wake. The rain came slantwise and harder now across the sheds and the yards and the depot.. There was the distant roll of a piano line as it played in counterpoint to the night train’s fading call. There was some distant jeering also. The quartermoon climbed by slow degrees through the cloudbank to add to the night’s yearnful air and still the beating of the rain came down on the cars of the resting stock and somewhere in the town the jags of a woman’s screeching were cut short.’
The Heart in Winter is a enthralling, skilfully crafted combination of love story and adventure story. I was completely captivated by Tom and Polly’s story which, although you suspect is doomed from the start, you can’t help hoping will turn out differently. ‘…And wasn’t it a remarkable turn of events that showed love and death they co-exist in our violent and sentimental world. They might even depend one on the other.’
June 22, 2024
Why the fuck haven't I read Kevin Barry before? What an idiot.
I LOVED this. Barry is an absolute genius, a tricksy, mad little wordsmith with poetry coming out of his ears. There are endless lines I could quote, phrases that had me chuckling away to myself, laughing out loud, reading again and again in awe.
The Heart in Winter is set in Butte Montana in the late 1800s, and follows Tom Rourke and Polly Gillespie as the two begin an epic love affair, setting off across the plains on a stolen horse. You might think its nothing new, but it's all in the telling - Barry's prose sings through the pages with so much life (and a lot of swearing).
A genuine perfect 5 star read where I wouldn't change a single thing. I hope someone makes this into a film.
Now excuse me whilst I go and read everything Kevin Barry has ever written.
I LOVED this. Barry is an absolute genius, a tricksy, mad little wordsmith with poetry coming out of his ears. There are endless lines I could quote, phrases that had me chuckling away to myself, laughing out loud, reading again and again in awe.
The Heart in Winter is set in Butte Montana in the late 1800s, and follows Tom Rourke and Polly Gillespie as the two begin an epic love affair, setting off across the plains on a stolen horse. You might think its nothing new, but it's all in the telling - Barry's prose sings through the pages with so much life (and a lot of swearing).
A genuine perfect 5 star read where I wouldn't change a single thing. I hope someone makes this into a film.
Now excuse me whilst I go and read everything Kevin Barry has ever written.
March 14, 2024
Kevin Barry’s prose is so enchanting that it takes my breath away. Like a master magician, he summons words from thin air and presents them to his readers with a flourish. He could write a city phone book, and it would sing! I went into this, his latest novel, prepared to be bowled over. He did not disappoint.
For the first time, this much-awarded Irish writer sets his novel in America, specifically, the city of Butte, Montana, in 1891. Butte is filled with hard-living Irish immigrant workers, one of whom is Tom Rourke, a ballad writer and sometime-photographer. He has the heart of a poet, and yet there’s a darkness that lives within him, which manifests in drinking, doping, and even suicide ideation.
Then he meets Polly Gillespie, who is a seasoned mail-order bride of sorts to the old owner of the copper mine, Long Anthony Harrington, who ties up his own wrists and whips himself into a frenzy over his love of Jesus. Not exactly a match made in heaven. When Tom and Polly exchange a look, the earth moves. They steal a horse and escape to the badland.
Barry writes, “It was to a world between worlds they were drawn. They were headed into this unthinkable place without a map to it nor the sense to be afraid even, and they were in this regard heroically. Death hovered close to the lovers always. It was around the like a charge o the air. It was like a blue gunpower waft. It was like electricity. They had an aspect of cool affront to life and so it was deathwards they were drawn.”
Heart in Winter weaves together – seamlessly, like magic – a lyrical tale of a bad-ass doper and his far-from-innocent lover, a Western adventure tale of gun-for-hire “Jacks” seeking frontier justice on behalf of Harrington, and a treatise about the choices we make and how these choices get rearranged as Tom and Polly lean into their inevitable fate. The patois of the badlands is channeled seamlessly through Barry’s writing as his characters leap from the page.
I owe a world of thanks to Doubleday Publishers, who provided me with early access to one of my favorite contemporary writers in exchange for an honest review. I’d give this six stars if I could!
For the first time, this much-awarded Irish writer sets his novel in America, specifically, the city of Butte, Montana, in 1891. Butte is filled with hard-living Irish immigrant workers, one of whom is Tom Rourke, a ballad writer and sometime-photographer. He has the heart of a poet, and yet there’s a darkness that lives within him, which manifests in drinking, doping, and even suicide ideation.
Then he meets Polly Gillespie, who is a seasoned mail-order bride of sorts to the old owner of the copper mine, Long Anthony Harrington, who ties up his own wrists and whips himself into a frenzy over his love of Jesus. Not exactly a match made in heaven. When Tom and Polly exchange a look, the earth moves. They steal a horse and escape to the badland.
Barry writes, “It was to a world between worlds they were drawn. They were headed into this unthinkable place without a map to it nor the sense to be afraid even, and they were in this regard heroically. Death hovered close to the lovers always. It was around the like a charge o the air. It was like a blue gunpower waft. It was like electricity. They had an aspect of cool affront to life and so it was deathwards they were drawn.”
Heart in Winter weaves together – seamlessly, like magic – a lyrical tale of a bad-ass doper and his far-from-innocent lover, a Western adventure tale of gun-for-hire “Jacks” seeking frontier justice on behalf of Harrington, and a treatise about the choices we make and how these choices get rearranged as Tom and Polly lean into their inevitable fate. The patois of the badlands is channeled seamlessly through Barry’s writing as his characters leap from the page.
I owe a world of thanks to Doubleday Publishers, who provided me with early access to one of my favorite contemporary writers in exchange for an honest review. I’d give this six stars if I could!
September 10, 2024
Barry writes in his typical high on testosterone, full of crude language and fast-paced writing style.
Tom Rourke is living the life of a loner, no family of his own, and not big on living either. Until Polly Gillespie comes into his workplace to get a picture taken...with her new husband!
His heart turns as their eyes meet, and he knows right there he's a goner. They elope anyway, knowing the whole town will be chasing after them. But they're drunk on love and adventure and want to get the best out of their love story even if their days together are numbered.
It's a cat and mouse chase with a good dose of love adventure, tragedy, and philosophy thrown in.
It's a good one. However, it doesn't quite pack the power punch the sensational Night Boat to Tangier did.
Tom Rourke is living the life of a loner, no family of his own, and not big on living either. Until Polly Gillespie comes into his workplace to get a picture taken...with her new husband!
His heart turns as their eyes meet, and he knows right there he's a goner. They elope anyway, knowing the whole town will be chasing after them. But they're drunk on love and adventure and want to get the best out of their love story even if their days together are numbered.
It's a cat and mouse chase with a good dose of love adventure, tragedy, and philosophy thrown in.
It's a good one. However, it doesn't quite pack the power punch the sensational Night Boat to Tangier did.
June 19, 2024
Kevin Barry has written a Western because of course he has. It’s very funny until it’s heartbreakingly sad. Barry’s use of language and vernacular gives his writing an electric quality as you feel the synapses in your brain being fired to make new connections. It’s exciting and fun. I honestly do not know what I’d do without Irish fiction (even when it’s set in Montana).
June 14, 2024
Barry gets better as he ages, so much so that here, almost every sentence is a work of art. Great books invite the reader to take a quote, like a photo, something to marvel at and remember the book by for years to come, in this, every paragraph bears such a phrase.
Barry writes short, striking sentences penetrating and indelible in their ferocity. There’s a mix of humour and tragedy in his three novels to date, and that is very much evident in this, his fourth.
This is set in America’s 19th-century Wild West, and concerns Tom Rourke, an Irish expat, who has settled in the mining town of Butte, Montana. He fancies himself as a balladeer, though he writes love letters for unmarried men to potential brides to help pay the rent. Complications arise when he meets, and takes to, Polly, recently betrothed to the mine’s owner.
Under the influence of love they flee on horseback, along with the contents of the boarding-house safe, heading to San Francisco, where everything will be better.
There will be many such summaries as mine above, and talk of the novel being a romance, or a travelogue, but those things find it difficult to describe the huge amount of fun and entertainment reaped in reading this wonderful novel.
Life is clearly hard in America in 1891, but Barry describes it with an impish joviality - an assault to the reader’s mind of language and imagery that will long remain in the memory.
A couple of clip’s…
of the Reverend..
and of a boy Rourke and Polly encounter..
Barry writes short, striking sentences penetrating and indelible in their ferocity. There’s a mix of humour and tragedy in his three novels to date, and that is very much evident in this, his fourth.
This is set in America’s 19th-century Wild West, and concerns Tom Rourke, an Irish expat, who has settled in the mining town of Butte, Montana. He fancies himself as a balladeer, though he writes love letters for unmarried men to potential brides to help pay the rent. Complications arise when he meets, and takes to, Polly, recently betrothed to the mine’s owner.
Under the influence of love they flee on horseback, along with the contents of the boarding-house safe, heading to San Francisco, where everything will be better.
There will be many such summaries as mine above, and talk of the novel being a romance, or a travelogue, but those things find it difficult to describe the huge amount of fun and entertainment reaped in reading this wonderful novel.
Life is clearly hard in America in 1891, but Barry describes it with an impish joviality - an assault to the reader’s mind of language and imagery that will long remain in the memory.
A couple of clip’s…
of the Reverend..
He smiled broadly. He was covered in the small bites as will afflict a ginger-completed man in the out country. His was a pale skin mottled and pecked-looking. His eyes were glossy on a haul of hard-won Jesus-love. His hair was truly a one-off. The burial mound was at careful length alluded to and shyly questioned by his visitors. The Reverend sighed and nodded, and there was a great sadness evident. He had just the evening previous buried his one true friend of the mortal plane, he confided.
and of a boy Rourke and Polly encounter..
They dismounted outside the Perpetual Hotel. They took down the pack. A pale white-haired boy maybe with a touch of albino or Swede to him stepped out from the hotel and took the measure of them.
He was about fourteen years old and solemn with the trials of it. He considered his boots at some length and nodded slowly as though he was coming to terms with the situation.
July 21, 2024
Irish writer Barry sets this story in 1891 Montana, among the struggling Irish denizens of a frontier town, in which two young(ish) people fall passionately in love and run away together during one of the bitterest winters anyone can remember. The problem is, the young woman is a mail-order bride who has only just been married to a deeply repressed God-botherer, and there’s also the matter of a stolen horse and a torched boarding house left in their wake. The spurned husband sets a trio of terrible hunters on their trail, and the story of love and vengeance is well and truly launched. As ever with Barry’s writing, this story is defined by his distinctive, idiosyncratic, almost Biblical prose.
July 28, 2024
If Cormac McCarthy wrote a Bonnie & Clyde story while also tripping balls on psychedelics, it would be this book. “The Heart in Winter” manages to be a funny and satirical look at the immigrant experience during the American West, while also being a deeply tragic character study of two individuals that have been absolutely FUCKED by life and baby IT WORKS. I was so sucked in by the prose and the breakneck speed of the story and plot that I didn’t even notice I was crying at the end. I’ve never read Kevin Barry’s writing before but let me tell you! I will now! I can see the issues people will have with this style of writing, but I myself loved the absolute mindfuckery of it all. Bold of you to assume I’d give a doomed love story between two damaged mental cases less than 4 stars.
July 23, 2024
Best book I’ve read in a good while. Barry has exceeded himself in this. A hilarious, poetic, delightfully vulgar, and transcendent love story.
July 15, 2024
DNF @ 32%. I could not stand the writing style, very hard to follow and stay engaged
July 1, 2024
All my reviews live at https://deedireads.com/.
I absolutely LOVED Night Boat to Tangier, so imagine my excitement to hear that Irish powerhouse Kevin Barry had written not only an American western, but a LOVE STORY. Did it live up to the hype? You bet your bookloving butt it did.
The story takes place in a small mining town full of Irish immigrants in Montana in 1891, starting on the cusp of winter. Tom Rourke is a bit of a scoundrel who spends his nights flitting between drinks, girls, and opium. That is, until Polly comes to town, complete with her own rough edges. The two quickly fall in love, never mind her brand-new husband, and set off into the mountains toward San Francisco to make a future together. But of course, it could never be that easy.
One paragraph into this book I was hooked, and five pages in I was obsessed. I could spend thousands of pages reading Barry’s prose; he’s just unbelievable on a sentence level. He has a musicality that takes a couple of chapters to settle into, but once you do, you can’t help but bask. I bow down.
I was also so impressed by the way this book felt so Irish and so American at the same time. I was wholly transported into the cold mountain winter in the West, harsh and beautiful both. I rooted for Tom and Polly, I booed the bad guys chasing them, I gasped in all the right places. It was just such a fantastic reading experience.
The only thing I could see keeping it from winning awards is the fact that I’m not sure if this book does much that’s NEW — it’s just extremely excellently done. But sometimes that is enough, yes?
Don’t sleep on this book when it comes out on July 9th!
CONTENT AND TRIGGER WARNINGS:
Blood and violence; Death; Sexual content; Sexual assault; Suicidal thoughts
I absolutely LOVED Night Boat to Tangier, so imagine my excitement to hear that Irish powerhouse Kevin Barry had written not only an American western, but a LOVE STORY. Did it live up to the hype? You bet your bookloving butt it did.
“…And wasn’t it a remarkable turn of events that showed love and death they co-exist in our violent and sentimental world. They might even depend one on the other.”
The story takes place in a small mining town full of Irish immigrants in Montana in 1891, starting on the cusp of winter. Tom Rourke is a bit of a scoundrel who spends his nights flitting between drinks, girls, and opium. That is, until Polly comes to town, complete with her own rough edges. The two quickly fall in love, never mind her brand-new husband, and set off into the mountains toward San Francisco to make a future together. But of course, it could never be that easy.
One paragraph into this book I was hooked, and five pages in I was obsessed. I could spend thousands of pages reading Barry’s prose; he’s just unbelievable on a sentence level. He has a musicality that takes a couple of chapters to settle into, but once you do, you can’t help but bask. I bow down.
I was also so impressed by the way this book felt so Irish and so American at the same time. I was wholly transported into the cold mountain winter in the West, harsh and beautiful both. I rooted for Tom and Polly, I booed the bad guys chasing them, I gasped in all the right places. It was just such a fantastic reading experience.
The only thing I could see keeping it from winning awards is the fact that I’m not sure if this book does much that’s NEW — it’s just extremely excellently done. But sometimes that is enough, yes?
Don’t sleep on this book when it comes out on July 9th!
CONTENT AND TRIGGER WARNINGS:
Blood and violence; Death; Sexual content; Sexual assault; Suicidal thoughts
July 20, 2024
I love Kevin Barry for the way he makes his sentences sing, even when he’s describing something as mundane as a fry cook fixing eggs for breakfast. The plot got a bit too operatic in its violence, hence the four-star rating rather than five. Barry narrates the audiobook, and his gravelly voice and Irish accents are well suited to the story.
June 30, 2024
Devoured this one in a single sitting!
A beautiful little Western love story full of grit. Barry has a really stunning style that makes for effortless reading.
A beautiful little Western love story full of grit. Barry has a really stunning style that makes for effortless reading.
July 24, 2024
A heartbreaking work of a love that was never to be, told in the familiar voice of one our foremost 21st century prose stylists.
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