Days Without End
Books | Fiction / Literary
4.1
Sebastian Barry
COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNERLONGLISTED FOR THE 2017 MAN BOOKER PRIZE"A true leftfield wonder: Days Without End is a violent, superbly lyrical western offering a sweeping vision of America in the making."—Kazuo Ishiguro, Booker Prize winning author of The Remains of the Day and The Buried GiantFrom the two-time Man Booker Prize finalist Sebastian Barry, “a master storyteller” (Wall Street Journal), comes a powerful new novel of duty and family set against the American Indian and Civil Wars 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.
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Author
Sebastian Barry
Pages
272
Publisher
Penguin
Published Date
2017-01-24
ISBN
0698168631 9780698168633
Ratings
Google: 4
Community ReviewsSee all
"I hated how this book was written. I began the book reading everything and not understanding and having to reread it, so then I switched to skimming. It was a weird mix of vernacular and lyrical writing that didn't work for me. <br/><br/>It got a lot of praise and was longlisted for the Booker and won other awards so as LeVar Burton said "you don't have to take my word for it.""
"As a fan of Civil War and Western American life and history, this proved to be a not-to-be-put-down read. I don't know how an Englishman manages to capture the patois and humor of rough and ready frontier soldiers. <br/><br/>"Days Without End" is a captivating story with plot twist and turns encapsulated within a vivid, descriptive writing style. Mr. Barry presents stunning portrayals of the West's landscapes, sunsets, sunrises, and the hardships of life on the plains.<br/><br/>The protagonists fighting for the Union army are captured and sent to the notorious Andersonville prison. Prison life descriptions are heart-rending. <br/><br/>There are compelling, compassionate relationship stories as well. Highly recommend, but not for the squeamish due to harsh descriptors about life in the rough and tumble early American West."