Tag: historical fiction

Unforgettable story of friendship and love

About the Book

Publisher’s description: Thomas McNulty, aged barely seventeen and having fled the Great Famine in Ireland, signs up for the U.S. Army in the 1850s. With his brother in arms, John Cole, Thomas goes on to fight in the Indian Wars—against the Sioux and the Yurok—and, ultimately, the Civil War. Orphans of terrible hardships themselves, the men find these days to be vivid and alive, despite the horrors they see and are complicit in. Moving from the plains of Wyoming to Tennessee, Sebastian Barry’s latest work is a masterpiece of atmosphere and language. An intensely poignant story of two men and the makeshift family they create with a young Sioux girl, Winona, Days Without End is a fresh and haunting portrait of the most fateful years in American history and is a novel never to be forgotten.

Format:	Hardcover	Publisher:	Faber & Faber	Pages:	272
Publication:	20th Oct 2016	Genre:	Historical Fiction

Purchase links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Days Without End on Goodreads

---

My Review

Days Without End is one of the novels shortlisted for 2017 The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. You can find out more about the prize and the other shortlisted novels here.

In Thomas McNulty, Sebastian Barry has created a distinctive and unforgettable narrative voice.  As Thomas travels the plains of America as a member of the US Army, he paints an evocative picture of the hardships of daily life, with striking use of imagery.

‘Then rain began to fall in an extravagant tantrum. High up in mountain country though we were, every little river became a huge muscled snake, and the water wanted to find out everything, the meaning of our sad roofs for instance, the meaning of our bunk beds beginning to take the character of little barks, the sure calculation that if it fell day and night no human man was going to get his uniform dry.’

He also describes unspeakable acts of savagery carried out by the army on Native American tribes, already been driven off their ancestral lands and living in poverty. The book explores how it is possible for someone to participate in terrible acts against one set of human beings yet show intense love towards others.

The author explores a familiar theme of writers, namely the nature of memory and story-telling. Thomas readily admits not everything he may tell us is true and he ponders philosophically on the nature of time.

‘We have a score of days and we spend them like forgetful drunkards. I ain’t got no argument with it, just saying it is so.’

Thomas forms a deep and unbreakable bond with John Cole. The true nature of their relationship is revealed in simple statements and tender moments.  For example, taking part in a play where Thomas is cast as a female character and John, the suitor, what the audience supposes to be acting is really a true manifestation of their feelings for each other.

‘Handsome John Cole, my beau. Our love in plain sight… There were love imperishable for a rushing moment.’

There is so much to enjoy about the story of Thomas, John and Winona, the Native American girl who becomes part of their unconventional family. Above all, Days Without End is a love story.

‘But if God was trying to make an excuse for us He might point at that strange love between us. Like when you fumbling about in the darkness and you light a lamp and the light come up and rescue things. Objects in a room and the face of a man who seem a dug-up treasure. John Cole. Seems a food. Bread of earth. The lamplight touching his eyes and another light answering.’

It’s near impossible to write a review (well, for me at least) which does justice to this wonderful, unforgettable book. I think it is a ‘dug-up treasure’.  I would simply say, read it.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

In three words: Moving, lyrical, compelling

Try something similar…A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale

---

About the Author

Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. His novels and plays have won, among other awards, the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize, the Costa Book of the Year award, the Irish Book Awards Best Novel, the Independent Booksellers Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He also had two consecutive novels, A Long Long Way (2005) and The Secret Scripture (2008), shortlisted for the MAN Booker Prize. He lives in Wicklow with his wife and three children.

Connect with Sebastian

Goodreads ǀ

 

About the Book

Publisher’s description: New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan island, 1746. One rainy evening in November, a handsome young stranger fresh off the boat arrives at a counting house door on Golden Hill Street: this is Mr. Smith, amiable, charming, yet strangely determined to keep suspicion shimmering. For in his pocket, he has what seems to be an order for a thousand pounds, a huge sum, and he won’t explain why, or where he comes from, or what he is planning to do in the colonies that requires so much money. Should the New York merchants trust him? Should they risk their credit and refuse to pay? Should they befriend him, seduce him, arrest him; maybe even kill him?

Format:	ebook	Publisher:	Scribner	Pages:	336
Publication:	27th June 2017	Genre:	Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com ǀ Barnes & Noble
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Golden Hill on Goodreads

---

My Review

Golden Hill is one of the novels shortlisted for the 2017 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. You can find a complete list of the shortlisted novels here.

The author convincingly captures the style of an 18^th century novel with its long sentences, epistolary sections and random capitalization. There are elements of the picaresque – think Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews or perhaps, given some of the more salacious episodes, Tom Jones. There are also some colourful characters, such as the awful creature Smith is forced to share a room with at one point and about whom he writes:

‘He has a Nose swollen to the Likeness of a Piece of Crimson Fruit, ornament’d by a many black Pores as there are Seeds upon a Strawberry; and a Skin of sunburn’d Leather otherwise, much pock’d and moul’d; and verminous Hair as long as his Shoulders, depending from a bald Pate; and a Pair of Eyes so crusted and blood-shot They would deserve to be made an Epithet by Homer, yet bright, and lively, and designing.’

There are also some wonderfully atmospheric descriptions of 18^th century New York:

‘Day upon day, the cold winds off the river stirred slow grey tributaries of fog between the houses, through which the crush of traffic loomed, and darkened as it loomed, as if becoming more solid with each approaching step. The fog contained and muffled the cries of draymen, squeak of wheel rims, hammering from aloft, et cetera, as a jewel-box with a cushioned lid presses all within into the smothering clasp of velvet.’

The mystery of the true purpose of Richard Smith’s mission provides the narrative arc for the book, into which the author drip feeds the occasional nugget of information about his background.  There is some amusing verbal sparring between Smith and Tabitha Lovell, who is definitely not a typical heroine of 18^th century literature.  Spiky, moody and contrary, there are hints of deeper psychological problems.

Viewed with suspicion by some, who fear he is a fraud or spy, and as a possible source of political advantage by others, Smith has one escapade after another.  Luckily, an impressive arsenal of talents emerges, including acting, dancing and card playing.

I did feel slightly disappointed by the ending. I guess I was hoping to be more surprised by the real purpose of Smith’s mission. This wasn’t helped by a significant piece of information having been revealed fairly early on in the novel. But this is a minor quibble.  Golden Hill is a highly enjoyable romp with a great cast of characters, some wonderful set pieces, lots of sly humour and a convincing period setting.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Scribner, in return for an honest review.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

In three words: Playful, rich, atmospheric

Try something similar…History of Tom Jones, A Foundling by Henry Fielding

---

About the Author

Spufford began as a writer of non-fiction, though always with a strong element of story-telling. Among his early books are I May Be Some Time, The Child That Books Built, and Backroom Boys. He has also edited two volumes of polar literature. But beginning in 2010 with Red Plenty, which explored the Soviet Union around the time of Sputnik using a mixture of fiction and history, he has been drawing steadily closer and closer to writing novels, and after a slight detour into religious controversy with Unapologetic, arrived definitely at fiction in 2016 with Golden Hill. He has been longlisted or shortlisted for prizes for writing about history, science, politics, theology and ‘the spirit of place’. Spufford studied English at Cambridge University. He was a Royal Literary Fund fellow at Anglia Ruskin University from 2005 to 2007, and since 2008 has taught at Goldsmiths College in London on the MA in Creative and Life Writing there.

Connect with Francis

Website ǀ Goodreads