Days Without End

2018 Longlist

After signing up for the US army in the 1850s, aged barely seventeen, Thomas McNulty and his brother-in-arms, John Cole, fight in the Indian Wars and the Civil War. Having both fled terrible hardships, their days are now vivid and filled with wonder, despite the horrors they both see and are complicit in. Then when a young Indian girl crosses their path, the possibility of lasting happiness seems within reach, if only they can survive.

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.

(from publisher)

Librarians’ comments

A novel that is at once powerful and brutal but also beautifully written and haunting. Days Without End has an epic feel, but never neglects to focus on the individual and their dreams and aspirations. This is a novel whose story and themes stay with you long after you have finished reading it. Sebastian Barry has a unique style and has produced a book which we feel will become a modern classic.

A western with a difference, this is an unlikely love story about a pair of naïve misfits, surviving in the hostile environment of the Indian Wars and the American Civil War. A story suffused with brutality and savagery but with incredible tenderness and sensitivity also. Utterly enthralling and beautifully told.

A unique, thoughtful, intimate, literary read.