Night Boat to Tangier
A Novel
Book - 2019
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 butt 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.
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Publisher:
New York :, Doubleday,, [2019]
Edition:
First United States Edition.
ISBN:
9780385540315
0385540310
0385540310
Branch Call Number:
FIC BARR
Characteristics:
255 pages ; 20 cm
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Add a CommentWell written but Barry is getting a little too close to caricature.
Interesting structure to the book. The story grows over time and eventually I am interested to read on to the conclusion. Initially it was almost irritating. It took a while to identify or feel empathy, understanding of the characters. Maurice, Charlie, Cynthia and Dilly living a drug infused life until they don't.
Just two old deadbeats sitting in a ferry terminal in Spain waiting for the night boat to Tangiers to disembark passengers? No, a fast-paced look at two lives that branches out from their sad-funny "WaitingforGodot"-like dialogue to explore two complicated lives and struggles from drug running to huge self-indulgences. It is also a story of human relationships, but especially a problematized friendship between two men. If you like travels to off-the-beaten path places, you will enjoy this acclaimed lively read.
A nyt top ten books of 2019, shortlisted for the booker prize “two aging criminals at the butt end of their damage filled careers. A superbly melonchlic novel full of beautiful phrases and terrible men”. Proving once again what wonderful wordsmiths come from Ireland.
An excellent read. Great narrative, intriguing characters, dark story line. You'll need to look up some of the Irish references!
This is the first book I've read by Kevin Barry, who obviously has the respect of the literary elite for his language and style. I liked the characters and the story and the language. It's a dark story about terrible people, really: drugs, murder, infidelity, love. I guess I'm no better.
NYT 2019 Top 10
CBC Day Six best books of 2019
New York Times Top 10 Book of 2019.
A desolate ferry terminal on the Spanish coast isn’t a place where you’d expect to encounter sharp-edged lyricism or rueful philosophy, but thanks to the two Irish gangster antiheroes of Barry’s novel, there’s plenty of both on display, along with scabrously amusing tale-telling and much summoning of painful memories. Their lives have become so intertwined that the young woman whose arrival they await can qualify as family for either man. Will she show? How much do they care? Their banter is a shield against the dark, a witty new take on “Waiting for Godot.”
For me it did not live up to the hype. Prose was enchanting, but found the narrative too choppy.