I’ve long wished to read a novel by Sebastian Barry and somehow not got to one until now.
Old God’s Time was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023 and shortlisted for the 2023 Irish Book Awards, Novel of the Year (winner announced 22 Nov).
This is a slow burn, introspective, literary read, of a man in decline, in the 9th month of his retirement from the Irish police force, now in his late 60’s. He has relocated to the annex of an old castle-like building overlooking the Irish sea and rarely has contact with anyone, though he is aware of his elderly landlord weeding the garden, a young woman with a child in the turret of the same building and a lone, trigger happy cellist.
His thoughts are of his wicker chair, his view, his peaceful existence and the joy of the privilege he has had to love his wife June, who he believed loved him in equal measure.
Over the course of the next week or so he relives memories of being with his wife and we develop a sense that this good fortune was not something either of them expected from life, given their rough beginnings, both abandoned as babies or small children.
His nostalgic meanderings are disturbed by a visit by two young policemen working a case against a priest, and looking into the cold case of another murdered 20 years ago. They want to know what he remembers from that time, as it was a case he worked on. Their arrival also coincides with the beginning of tentative relationships with his neighbours.
What a thing to bring to your old friend’s door. A new peril of cold cases that he had never foreseen. Enough time goes by and it is as if old things never happened. Things once fresh, immediate, terrible, receding away into old God’s time, like the walkers walking so far along Killiney Strand that, as you watch them, there is a moment when they are only a black speck, and then they’re gone. Maybe old God’s time longs for the time when it was only time, the stuff of the clockface and the wristwatch.
The visits disturb and awaken old memories and feelings, going all the way back to his early days in the army, a year in Palestine and then in Malaya, where he was a sniper and other dark shadows of memories long buried.
The slow revelation of his past, of his job and family, his son and daughter, his wife and their experiences as children create intrigue as he alludes to disturbing events that take time to unveil.
His often-time confused mind sometimes makes those memories feel like events happening in real-time around him; people appear to him who are no longer here. Figments of imagination or angelic attendants preparing him?
Sometimes he awakens and realises it was a dream, other times he realises it was a form of hallucination.
But he was obliged to believe it. Because in the first instance a witness should be believed. A lot of mischief and mischance had arisen from not believing witnesses. Rejecting out of hand. Poor soul standing in front of you, spilling the dreadful beans, and it not sounding likely. But oftentimes the unlikely was the truth, as you might find out, in the end, when it was too late. He felt he should believe – believe himself.
We read and we are in his mind trying to decipher what is real and what is imagined or desired. At a certain point it doesn’t really matter, except that the two young policemen may suspect he is implicated in something.
Far from being depressing or exhausting, given the burden of what he has lived through, there is a sense of gratitude for the gift of a shared love he had with June and pride he has in his children.
Behind the plot is a seething rage at the years long refusal to follow up with child abuses nor charge priests suspected of child abuse, men covering the despicable deeds of other men, of one type of power enabling another, predators against the weak and helpless and the long term psychological distress this trauma has inflicted on hundreds of thousands of children, not talked about but passed on through their own DNA, becoming a form of collective trauma of a generation(s).
The lack of redemption for victims, the theft of their freedom, of their peace of mind, the deep wounds that remain, that continue to fester, to destroy souls.
It was up to him now to know less about times and details and more about the moiling mysteries of the human heart. Things happened to people, and some people were required to life great weights that crushed you if you faltered just for a moment. It was his job not to falter. But every day he faltered. Every day he was crushed, and rose again the following morn like a cartoon figure.
Setting the novel in this man’s twilight years takes a dramatic subject and allows it to be reflected on in slow paced, methodical way that combines the experiences people go through and witness, the effects and consequences that they continue to live with and attempt to overcome or heal from, or take revenge for and the aftermath, what survives.
Brilliantly written and rendered, thought provoking, holding its threads of hope and faith in the power of genuine love. It is a book that is worth immersing in due to its dream-like reality, an ideal weekend read.
Highly Recommended. Have you read any Sebastian Barry novels? Do you have a favourite?
Sebastian Barry, Author
Sebastian Barry is an Irish novelist, playwright and poet, one of a small group of authors to have been nominated for the Booker Prize five times.
The 2018-21 Laureate for Irish Fiction, Barry had two consecutive novels shortlisted for the Booker Prize, A Long Long Way (2005) and the top ten bestseller The Secret Scripture (2008), before Old God’s Time was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2023.
He has also won the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize, the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. His novels have twice won the Costa Book of the Year award, the Independent Booksellers Award and the Walter Scott Prize.
Barry was born in Dublin in 1955, and now lives in County Wicklow.
Word by Word 
What a tantalizing post and this phrase jumped out at me “…a lone, trigger happy cellist.” Difficult to envision a cellist being trigger happy, and that phrase is a grabber for sure.
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Yes, the cellist provides an interesting counter to the retired policeman and his other pastime sounds a warning bell to the plot. 🙂 I say no more.
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Hi Claire 🌺
I bought this book and read a few pages enough to realize I would set a time aside to read it.
Thank you for your view on the story, at my age 77 having lived a large life ( as I suspect you are living 💗) I look back at the loves in my life, they fill my life, love is what we all will remember. This is a book I will like.
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I am sure you will enjoy the appreciative relationships that anchor this read Sylvie, I’m happy to know you have it. There were many memorable and insightful passages.
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I am number 11 on the library list for this one (and don’t seem to move forward). Your review has made me even more keen. I often enjoy stories, where the protagonist reflects back on past events. It will be my first Sebastian Barry.
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Oh I hope it comes to you soon, this was a remarkable read, the way it blends the looking back on the past while dealing with what is going on in the present. It is also a tribute to the importance of enduring and loving relationships/friendships.
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Ah, so glad that you too have read this. It’s a keeper, isn’t it? The sort of book I might yet buy, though I borrowed it from the library.
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Yes, I could tell from the premise it was going to be a keeper this one, it’s that quiet revelation and yet so humbly pursued, I could well imagine rereading it, but knowing what’s coming. I found it very visual as well, the depictions of the landscape had me in Ireland and parts of Wales for the mountain scenes, even though they’re set in Ireland.
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The best Barry I’ve read thus far is Days Without End, with its historical focus and celebration of the love between two men fighting in the American Civil War. Its follow-up, A Thousand Moons, didn’t work for me as well, and for whatever reason, I’ve never clicked with his Ireland-set work. This one sounds like it might make for an honourable exception, though!
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I think I have Days Without End on my kindle, I do remember that being a very popular read.
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Thanks for this review- I also enjoyed this book. But like the previous commentator Elle, my favourite Sebastian Barry is Days Without End. The language there, the imagery and rhythm, are sublime. I also didn’t like as much the sequel One Thousand Moons.
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Sorry I just wanted to add that I liked the way you describe the feeling he has for June almost as one of gratitude for the happiness they’ve had together, as you say, unexpected perhaps, given their early lives.
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Thank you for sharing your favourite Mandy, I think I have that one as an ebook, so I may read that next, but so many people have different favourites, I think I may have to try a few!
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It’s got my vote!
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I read this a couple of months ago and feel already I could easily read it again. I’m astonished it was overlooked for the Booker ( or am I ….. ?).
Beautifully written.
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Yes, I had that feeling of wanting to start again especially as it’s one of those slow reveal novels, so you could read it a second time knowing what he really means, without the curiosity of the back story, but more aware of the source of his appreciation and rage.
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I’m sorry should have said short listed for the Booker.
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Yes, I became interested when I saw it had been longlisted, I often find that’s where the gems lie. I’ve not read any of the shortlist.
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I read The secret scripture back in the year it came out and loved the writing though I think I had some reservations about its plot. I’ve always wanted to read more, like A long long way, but this sounds good.
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I do like the sound of The Secret Scripture as well.
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I’ve read quite a few by Barry, but I didn’t want to read this one. I really like the McNulty family ones.
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I saw a comment you made elsewhere Lisa, which I think I may have had in the back of my mind, however my reading of this novel was that it was a thing of beauty and not one that dwells on the abuses that are there in the background. I think there is much to learn from his exploration of these characters, both the dangers to the human psyche of those who have been abused (and the knock on effect inter-generationally) and the healing that can come from loving relationships.
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Each to her own, Claire, but as Kim (below) says, this covers some very dark territory. Here in Australia, we are saturated in real life stories from the media, particularly on ABC news and current affairs where it is delivered in disturbing detail. (During children’s viewing time too). I can’t speak for Ireland, but in Australia, where we have had a Royal Commission into this, people know about it.
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Yes, I understand and I don’t like anything that goes into the disturbing detail, which the media tends to so, however I am interested in the psychological impact and the healing path, and this is the first time I’ve read a novel that rather than focus on the disturbing, shocking aspects, put a lot more attention (in my reading of it anyway) on the healing power of functional relationships and love and the importance of community. That’s not to say there isn’t loss, pain or sometimes an inability for some to overcome their pain, but show us the light too, was what I took from it.
To me, it signified something of a turning point, the same with Katriona O’Sullivan’s Poor that I just read, although her book is nonfiction, but it focuses on solutions and not saying speaking them, she is actively working to change the system.
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I read this, admired it but found the contents disturbing and it’s not one I’d recommend to first time Barry readers. It treads some very dark territory. My favourite is a Long, Long Way but I also loved Annie Dunne and thought On Canaan’s Side a wonderful evocation of a woman’s life well lived. Unlike other commentators I struggled with Days Without End, which is especially violent.
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This was my first time reading Sebastian Barry, so I guess I’m going to enjoy his other novels as well, because I really enjoyed his handling of the subject material. Thank you for your favourites too Kim, I think we’ve covered nearly all his novels now, so I’ll just have to pick the next one randomly.
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Most are interlinked… he “rescues” members of his family and puts them in novels.
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I read On Canaan’s Side which was longlisted for the Booker and won the Walter Scott about ten years ago. I knew from that one book that he was a writer I would love and I know I’ve read one other of his but can’t think which one. I have Old God’s Time here waiting and you’ve made me want to pick it up immediately. It sounds wonderful!
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Oh thank you for letting me know that Sandra, I had that feeling too after reading this novel that he was a writer I would love to immerse more in,I think the way he handles these tough subjects (trauma and tragedy) is portrayed in a humane, sensitive way, neither depressing nor gratuitous. I’m happy to know there are other worthy novels to discover.
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Claire, I think of On Canaan’s Side as one of his ‘lesser’ novels, just because it’s not a title that springs to mind when people think of Barry. But I definitely recommend it. I can’t imagine any of his books being a disappointment and I don’t know why I haven’t read more of them. There’s just never enough time!
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Yes, I know I’ve been more focused on women writers for some years now which is partly why I’ve not read him yet, but sometimes a voice carries that sense of a higher consciousness at play rather than a higher intellect, and that’s something that will always attract me.
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A little like you, I’ve wondered about trying Sebastian Barry for a while without quite getting around to picking up any of his books. Old God’s Time was featured on Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime fairly recently, and now I regret not making the time to listen to it. Oh, well…I think Kim and Cathy are planning a year of reading Sebastian Barry in 2024, so maybe we’ll pick up some more ideas then! Lovely review as ever Claire, I always enjoy your thoughtful posts.
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Oh that’s great, I’d definitely be in to a year of reading Sebastian Barry, I joined in on the Brian Moore year and Barry is definitely my kind of author. Thanks for the heads up, I’ll keep an eye out. When I asked for people’s favourites there were so many different titles mentioned, that spoke volumes. Thank you for your kind words Jacqui, always most appreciated. 🥰
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