Sebastian Barry reads from Days Without End
Listen to Sebastian Barry, author of Booker-shortlisted The Secret Scripture and A Long Long Way, read from Days Without End – his latest novel about two men and the hands in life they are dealt, set in some of the most fateful years in America’s past.
Time was not something then we thought of as an item that possessed an ending, but something that would go on for ever, all rested and stopped in that moment. Hard to say what I mean by that. You look back at all the endless years when you never had that thought. I am doing that now as I write these words in Tennessee. I am thinking of the days without end of my life. And it is not like that now . . .
Praise for Days Without End:
‘Sebastian Barry is the most humane of writers. The leeway is always generous; beauty is mined to its last redemptive glint. Like McNulty, the voice is humorous, compassionate, true. It is his glory as a writer. It is the stern, glorious music of a great novel.’ Eoin McNamee, Irish Times
‘Remarkable . . . Life-affirming in the truest and best ways.’ Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail
‘Epic, lyrical and constantly surprising . . . a rich and satisfying novel.’ Jeff Robson, Independent
‘The narrative is gripping, descriptions of landscape vivid and beautiful, evocations of military life, brutal warfare, cruelty and courage utterly compelling.’ Allan Massie, Scotsman
‘Days Without End is a work of staggering openness; its startlingly beautiful sentences are so capacious that they are hard to leave behind, its narrative so propulsive that you must move on. In its pages, Barry conjures a world in miniature, inward, quiet, sacred; and a world of spaces and borders so distant they can barely be imagined. Taken as a whole, his McNulty adventure is experimental, self-renewing, breathtakingly exciting.’ Alex Clark, Guardian
‘Engaging, humane and beautiful. This is Barry’s most powerful and memorable novel yet.’ Niall MacMonagle, Irish Sunday Independent