I’m not going to read books about rape anymore. So that means I won’t finish this one. Why does every book have to be about rape?

His latest standalone novel, Old God's Time (2023) by Sebastian Barry, is an evocative poetic tale. Tom Kettle is a retired, former police detective living in a granny unit attached to Queenstown Castle, overlooking the Irish Sea. For the past nine months, he has enjoyed the solace of his new home, until two former colleagues come knocking on his door. Questions about a former case generate a series of reflections and memories from Tom’s dark past. Struggling to come to terms with his grief and the sordid past of the Church’s presence, is soul-destroying. Warning: some of the content in this novel may be a trigger for some readers. Yet, this is a heartfelt narrative that portrays one man’s life, loves, hurt and betrayals. With its captivating atmospherics and wonderful characters, comes this splendid literary deconstruction of the typically powerful Irish storytelling. A fine example of literary fiction, that is a tragic yet life-affirming tale, with a five stars classic read rating. With thanks to Faber & Faber and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own and freely given.

This is a poignant and moving novel about the repercussions and long-term effects of child sexual abuse, particularly that committed by Catholic priests on their young charges.

Tom Kettle is a retired policeman in his sixties, living out his days in a small flat attached to a castle overlooking the sea in Dalkey, near Dublin. Tom and his wife June were both sexually abused as children by Catholic priests and this ultimately led to June’s early death and affected the lives of their children. Although Tom enjoys his peace and solitude, he is at first pleased when two young detectives knock on his door late one afternoon. They have come to ask Tom’s help in looking at one of his old cold cases. Although he enjoys their company and reliving his time in the force, he finds himself being dragged back to an unsettling case from the 60s involving the death of a priest.

Written mostly through Tom’s inner dialogue, we become acquainted with the castle, its inhabitants and the town of Dalkey. As Tom’s thoughts wander to his wife and children and their lives together, his dreams often become mixed with reality, but gradually lead us to understand what happened to him and June and why the re-opening of his old case has so distressed him. In addition to being asked to help the police, Tom has also been asked to keep an eye on a woman and her son who recently moved into the castle, fleeing a violent husband.

Through his wonderful lyrical writing, Barry paints a picture of a kind and generous man who has had to endure one tragedy after another, before finally arriving at his seemingly peaceful life beside the sea. Barry handles his characters sensitively with both humour and empathy as this emotional story unfolds, arriving at a haunting but heroic ending.

Sebastian Barry is an auto-buy author for me. I have Old God’s Time pre-ordered, but I was thrilled to receive an advance copy via Netgalley.

Our narrator is Tom Kettle, a 66-year-old widower living in Dalkey. He’s nine months into retirement from a decorated career with the Dublin police and plodding along in his solitude when two Garda officers ask him to look at reports from an old unsolved murder case he worked on years earlier.

This request unsettles Kettle immensely, but eventually, he concedes to help his old colleagues with the case. A priest under investigation for paedophilia has made disturbing accusations regarding the murderer. 

Kettle, whose wife and two adult children suffered brutal deaths in the previous ten years, is already struggling coping with the life he has and is living. 

Much of the narrative is a very accessible stream of consciousness as Kettle's mind drifts through various memories, unwanted and otherwise. He also must deal with the harsh realities that arise from police procedure, like evidence gathering, interviews at headquarters, and the worries of acting slightly outside the laws of the land or buckling under the pressure to conform. But, Kettle’s memories are not chronological and may not always be accurate, but somehow, this just makes his character all the more endearing. 

The unsolved case crucially turns Kettle’s thoughts inwards to matters closer to home and “sorrowful revelations” of childhood abuse “The rapes, the bloody priests.”. 

Barry is a resourceful Irish writer with a gift for empathy and lyrical prose, and he doesn’t fail here as Kettle’s story hinges on domestic events, on years of priests’ sexual abuse of children in Ireland. Barry’s tight focus on one retired officer and his inner ghosts bedevilling him provide a compelling sense of the misery the Catholic Church knew it was causing and for which it has failed to atone.

Old God’s Time is a beautifully constructed novel but rather harrowing and brutally hard to read in places. 4.5⭐️

Old God’s Time is due to be published on March 2nd by Faber & Faber.

This is the third novel I read by Sebastian Barry, and I seriously doubt he can write a bad line. And if he does, they don’t feature in his novels. This is a tough book, about some terrible events, and if it wasn’t because of the beauty of the writing, I am not sure it would be possible to read it till the end. As it is, no matter how much hurt and horror it piles up, you cannot help but keep reading. And you should.
The way the story is told makes it even more shocking. It is written in the third person, but the reader is inside Tom Kettle’s head, an Irish policeman who retired only 9 months ago, living in a wonderful setting, what appears to be a charmed, charming, and calm life, and following the vagaries of his thoughts, where his memories of his family hold a place of honour. Stream of consciousness describes quite well the narrative style, where readers can find themselves contemplating the comings and goings of Tom’s landlord, his neighbours, the birds, the weather, thinking about his wife, his daughter, and his son, going shopping, cooking... At first, it seems as if this is going to be a cozy novel, where the retired policeman might be called to help on some kind of investigation, and this impression is reinforced when two young colleagues come to visit him, asking for his advice on how to deal with a case he had been involved in many years back. But his reluctance to learn any of the details of the case, and the way his mind seems to start wandering and unravelling from then on, make us realise that Tom is like an iceberg floating in the ocean, or a duck gliding on a lake. They might appear calm and quiet, but under the surface, there are hidden depths and a constant struggle to keep afloat.
What is true and what is not, who is there and who is a figment of Tom’s imagination, becomes difficult to discern as the novel progresses, both, in the outside world and inside of his head. He is one of those unreliable narrators that are not even aware they might be unreliable, and whose minds seem to be trying very hard to protect them, even if it might make them and others question their sanity,
Tom tries very hard to do what is right and eventually manages to face the magnitude of all that has happened in his life. He reflects upon fate, mentions Jonah and Job, and indeed, the Biblical comparison is not a bad one, because when he thought he had put his traumatic childhood behind him and had found happiness with his wife, who also shared a similarly traumatic past, things start to spiral out of control. This is a man who is still mourning his wife fifteen years after her death, and who’s been hit by more losses than a man his age would expect, and very few of the joys a good man would aspire to. There is much personal tragedy here, and there is child abuse as well, so readers should be warned about the nature of the content, in case these are topics too painful for them.
Tom is a good observer, has a huge heart and sense of justice, is aware of his limitations and able to laugh at himself, always happy to try to help others, even at great personal. And he is a man who values the small things and joys in life. I felt touched by his story, and I expect I won’t be the only one.
This novel is literary fiction at its best, featuring some wonderful and some horrible characters as well, full of love, joy, pain, and sadness, written in stunning prose with and for all the senses. If the subject matter and the warnings I have mentioned don’t put you off, do read it. It is an unforgettable experience.
I thank NetGalley and Faber & Faber for providing me with an ARC copy of this novel, which I freely chose to review.

Some samples of the writing, to give you a small taster. Remember that you can always check a sample in any of the online stores and also that this is an ARC copy, so there might be changes in the published version of the novel.
To lose your mother. It kills you, and then you have to live on.
He didn’t like to turn on the lights because he sensed the resentment of the objects as he passed. Something in the weather had shifted outside, the thick clouds were gone, the wind was still, and an unscheduled waking, intruding on the privacy of inanimate things —so deeply coveted by them. Chair and table, carpet and knick-knacks, wanting to be alone, like Great Garbo.
A soul like him left on earth without the person he had loved —what sort of creature was that?
There are worse things and worst things, he remembered thinking.
He felt he was disappearing to that final dot of light on an old television screen. Flick the off-switch and retire to bed.
It was as if he had just met her, that very same feeling of old in the vanished café, and yet of course in the very same moment, he knew everything there was to know about her. The strange privilege of that. The lovely wildness of it.

Ex policeman Tom Kettle is trying to settle into life as a retiree, when two policemen call and interrupt his new found freedom. Their visit stirs up memories and ghosts from his past, disrupting his present. It’s a beautifully told tale, skilfully delivered by an exceptional writer. I found it extremely moving and sad.

Sebastian Barry's writing is always a joy! I'm usually a quick reader, but slowed down to appreciate the rhythm and flow of the words and to get to know the characters in the book. However, I'm not sure the reward of a bleak story of traumatised characters with little optimism or hope was really worth it.
I struggled with how to translate this into a star rating, but have gone with 4 for the writing but maybe wait until you are feeling mentally strong to read it.
Thank you to netgalley and Faber and Faber for an advance copy of this book

A very sensitive and moving novel. A retired Police Officer- Tom Kettles is living alone now in Dalkey, Dublin where he is trying to enjoy and get used to the solitude after a busy time in the police force. He spends a lot of time reminiscing about his wife and children as well as the cases he was involved in. It can be haunting at times as some of the cases were about child abuse. On the other hand the prose is lovely and reminds me of the places and language used in Ireland.

‘Exhausted youth is different from exhausted age. It can be repaired.’

Tom Kettle is a retired policeman, living alone by the Irish Sea in Dalkey, south of Dublin. His days are full of memories of his wife June, and their children Joseph and Winnie, all now dead, together with his observations of those who are his neighbours. Tom finds some comfort in the solitude and beauty of his surroundings. And then, one day, he is visited by two policemen who hope that he can help them. They are reopening a case Tom worked on some thirty years earlier, in the 1960s.

‘There were many terrible stories in the world, and he had heard most of them.’

This visit and what follows takes Tom into the past, into uncomfortable memories of abuse perpetrated on children, on him and his wife as children by priests, and this impact of that abuse. Tom is surrounded by memories. The good memories he has of June and their children, the bad memories occasioned by the wretched distress of abuse, of powerlessness. Can good memories balance the bad? Is it ever possible for the adult to escape the fetters abuse places on a child? Tom is comforted by his love for June, but he cannot forget or ignore the impact of the abuse she suffered.

Revisiting the case takes Tom back into his life both in the army and as a detective. His memories, shared with the reader, are not chronological and may not always be accurate. I found myself reading slowly, turning back pages trying to follow Tom’s thoughts. Stream of consciousness does not always work for me but in this case, it served to highlight Tom’s story, to amplify the paralysing widespread effect of abuse.

I finished reading this novel some time ago and am still thinking about aspects of it. In the hands of a lesser writer, it would not have had the same impact. This is a sad story dealing with uncomfortable issues. A harrowing but recommended read.

‘His story was told and he had told it to no one.’

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Faber & Faber for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

It's Sebastian Barry so you know the writing is going to be good, no great, but even knowing this, he still finds a turn of phrase, a wording, that will startle. God's Old Time is full of such moments.

Tom Kettle, a retired policeman, living a solitary, rural life on the coast is visited by two former colleagues who need to discuss a case, a murdered priest. This is not a crime novel though. Barry's prose takes us into memory, into liminal spaces, and in doing so makes an interior novel feel very expansive. Tragedy is at the heart of this novel, and though it is sad, it also full of hope, of a sense of an ending but also a new beginning. It is a novel very full of life.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Tom Kettle is a recently retired Garda, settling in to his new life living in the small annexe of a castle in the village of Dalkey Co. Dublin. He seems content enough there until one evening two unexpected guests arrive. They are two serving members of the Garda and they are asking his help with regard to an old investigation of which he was involved. Bringing back long buried memories Tom has to face his past and put some ghosts to rest.
As the tale is shared it’s sometimes hard to know what is real and what is imagined. I found this a hard book to read as the subject matter is particularly difficult, but saying that, it needs to be told.
For me this is a 3.5⭐️ book as I struggled to differentiate between reality and Tom’s thoughts. Thanks to #Netgalley for my ARC of this book.

I confess to having given up on this one, which is vanishingly unusual for me. I love beautiful prose, I adore lyrical wordplay and sinking into a novel that draws me into the world of its characters - but this doesn't happen for me here. It's too verbose, too slow and repetitive and, dare I say it, dull. It's clearly written by a master of characterisation, someone who really understands the human condition, but it's not for me. I kept waiting for it to start getting to the story - but it seems the ramblings of an old (but then, not actually that old) man is the story and I found that quite frustrating.

I love Sebastian Barry's writing and this novel was remarkable. The writing is rich and poetic and incredibly moving. Thank you to the author, the publishers and to Netgalley for the opportunity to review an arc.

As we come to expect from Sebastian Barry this is a novel set over just a few days, much of it played out in the protagonist's head and yet it is a memorable read. The prose is flowing and beautiful, It achieves the magical combination of being literary and yet light enough to be described as a page-turner.

Barry at his best yet again

Thank you NetGalley & Faber & Faber for the ARC

With thanks to the author, publishers Faber and Faber Ltd., and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

This was my first work by Sebastian Barry, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. While no doubt beautifully written, his style of writing was a little disarming to me at first, with his long rambling paragraphs containing a stream of consciousness that seemed to jump ad hoc from one subject to another and then back again. On a few occasions, I had to go back and reread a few pages to make sure I understood what was going on, but it was all so worth it in the end.

Tom Kettle is a retired police detective with an initially happy but ultimately tragic backstory. He has retired to an old castle on the Dublin coast to live out his remaining years in tranquility, but his peace is disturbed by a visit from two detectives that drags him back into an old case and digs up some unwanted memories for him.

Despite dealing with hard topics such as child abuse, bereavement, murder, and corruption, the author weaves these topics into the story in such a way that it is never unpleasant to read about them.

A wonderful reading experience.

This was everything you need for a thriller and crime story. It is not as black and white as you first think and like most typical thrillers, is full of twists.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words some text written has been typed in red and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry is a beautiful , if occasionally bleak work of fiction. Tom Kettle is a retired Garda (Policeman) who is riding out his retirement in the beautiful seaside town of Dalkey, spending much of his time with his memories of his now deceased wife and his long grown children. His only real social contact is with his somewhat eccentric landlord and with the young woman who has moved in next door with her little boy. This quiet life is disrupted when two former colleagues knock at his door one stormy evening asking for his help with a decades old case , one that will take Tom back to some of the darkest moments of his past
This is a beautifully written book, so many times I found myself pausing to savour or reread a particularly striking sentence. The author does tackle the difficult subject of clerical child sexual abuse, discussing the trauma experienced by the victims as well as the impact on those who love them and even those tasked with investigating the crimes, which unfortunately was something of a futile effort during Tom's tenure at the force as the Church played shell games, moving priests from one area to another and covering up their crimes.
As the book unfolds we as readers start to realise that Tom may not be the most reliable of narrators, the stream of consciousness style means that the past and present mingle in his memory which can be confusing but does highlight how powerful memory can be and how often we strive to banish the pains of the past.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own .

A retired detective living a solitary life is visited by two colleagues and his controlled idyll is blown apart. There follows a tale of child abuse, the Catholic Church and a deep personal sadness. Not an easy read but in Barry’s fine and beautiful penmanship it soars above the tawdry and lowly.

I apologise for this being such a short review but I’m afraid personal grief is rather getting in the way of my writing at the moment.

NO SPOILERS

This book covers institutional child abuse, so do be aware.

Sebastian Barry is such a skilled writer that though the story and its outcome were of little interest to me, the plot and style had me read and savour every word.

Old God’s Time is written in the third person in such an intimate way it feels like a first person narrative but, of course, allows the writer to include observations, and what observations! Barry’s style is lyrical, poetic, slow, contemplative and full of tiny, evocative details. It is superb.

Another stunning novel from Sebastian Barry. His writing is so so beautiful, poetic and lyrical. The subject matter is quite difficult and dark, but the tale is told sublimely.