Boy, I really wanted to like this book. I tried the ebook edition and the audio and neither one of them made me want to finish the story. There is just too much going on in Tom’s thoughts to keep me interested in what the actual plot is.
I did like the narrator in the audio book, though.

“To him this was the whole point of retirement, of existence–to be stationary, happy and useless.”

66-year-old Retired policeman, Tom Kettle is leading a quiet, solitary life. His much-loved wife June died years earlier. His son Joe lives in America and his daughter, Winnie lives nearby. Or do they? Tom’s current home, where he “washed up,” is unusual; it’s a lean-to annexed to a white castle, and it overlooks the sea. With books in boxes still unpacked, Tom enjoys his days watching the sea, thinking, and soaking up his memories.

All his working life he had dealt with villians. After a few decades of that your faith in human nature is in the ground. It’s a premature burial, predating your own. But he wanted to be a believer again, in something. He wanted to live in his welath of minutes, the ones he had left anyhow.

It’s only been 9 months since he retired, and there’s the idea that he deserves this peace and quiet. The peace and quiet, however, all comes to an end with the arrival of two young policeman, Wilson and O’Casey, from his old station. They arrive, act awkwardly and say they need his help on an old case. But do they? Then Detective Superintendent Fleming pays Kettle a visit and repeats the request for help with the old case, yet when Kettle finally travels to the police station, it doesn’t seem that his help is needed at all. The cold case, now reopened, is the brutal murder of priest found in the Dublin mountains, and Kettle can’t even remember being the investigating officer. This memory gap is jarring and causes Kettle to have an “out-of-body experience.”

Kettle is an unreliable narrator. The plot gives us signs right away: there are surreal moments, dream-like memories, odd encounters, and gradually the heavy price of violence is revealed. The cold-case murder of the priest under investigation and the past of Kettle’s long-dead wife are inexorably tangled.

Old God’s Time is hard reading. There are sick, twisted people in the world who prey on children, and there are others who, for whatever reason, cover up those crimes. How do survivors live, carry on, and deal with the past? Kettle’s life has been blighted by violence and grief. How can one live with memories when all those memories are vile?
The audio version is read by Stephen Hogan. The narration was ok. At first the narration (for this listener) did not quite fit the book. It seemed too lyrical, but as the plot develops, the chosen tone is appropriate.

Review copy

Barry is just a master of empathetic, intense prose that illuminates the movements of human consciousness - but this is also a moral investigation into the crimes of the Catholic church in Ireland, and how the consequences of child abuse permeate individual lives and the destiny of families and communities. While told in the third person, the text is strongest when it turns into a maelstrom of consciousness and takes readers inside the mind of retired police officer Tom Kettle who, as his last name suggests, had found warmth and solace in his home, his family. But from the beginning, we learn that he suffers because his wife and kids have all died within the last ten years. When young policemen visit Tom about a cold case involving the murder of a clergyman who was accused of pedophilia as well as another priest who evaded imprisonment, we start to wonder what Tom knows about the case, and what happened to his loved ones.

The narration is highly complex, jumping between memory and present-day reality, showing a man struggling to revive long-buried trauma in order to know himself. Nine moths Tom has been retired, and the time has birthed a breakthrough of his inner turmoil. Both he and his beloved wife grew up in the care of the church, both were abused. In a way, Tom is an Irish noir detective, and Barry serves us typical elements of a crime novel - questionings, evidence gathering, theories -, but rooted in the psychological investigation of his protagonist's past.

The hallucinatory quality heightens the sense of entrapment that renders the whole text gloomy and claustrophobic. Tom is existentially lonely, his pain is overpowering, and to sort out his trauma-stricken, huddled memory seems like the only path to salvation: From the Catholic institution, Tom escaped into the military, was sent to war, joined the police, and tried to make a home for himself with his equally damaged wife whom he loved dearly - all while experiencing how even the police has continued to protect abusers in the clergy. Barry's lyrical prose shines once more, and his unreliable protagonist - unreliable even to himself - remains an enigma, as we all are, but a captivating one.

And then there's Tom's neighbor, an actress named, of course, Ms McNulty, who has fled her husband who used to abuse her now deceased daughter - who are this woman and her son? Not only do they relate to Barry's McNulty family that appears in several of his works, they also relate to the hauntings of the past, the ghosts that have followed Tom since his childhood in the orphanage.

I'm not sure how Barry manages to write such moving novels that are also this complex and never kitsch-y. Just nominate him for the Booker again, he deserves it.

Received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Moving, Poignant, Tragic


Barry is widely known for his poetic and lyrical writing style, this book is no different. Old God's Time is a haunting and emotional stream of consciousness account from Tom Kettle - a retired Garda (police officer).

My first impressions of the novel were that it was monstrously embellished with Tom's unreliable narrative jumping from past to present quite frequently. Both author and narrator felt like two sides of the same coin, linked but completely separate - I was afraid this was going to be another "Great Irish Read" full of inactivity and reminiscing - I was wrong.

The book picked up immensely about 55 pages in as Tom reveals more about his own family and perhaps the reason he has been asked to come out of retirement and assist in Church molestation cases that have been overruled and overturned by "higher ups".

It becomes clear in certain situations that Tom is not the most reliable of storytellers as this case seems to bring up repressed memories of his own childhood and some involving his family. We are then propelled in to first dates, traumatic conversations and beautiful fatherly memories. "he found he couldn’t tidy his frazzled mind”

To wrap up I feel this not Barry's best work but it's still a sorrowful, emotional story of devastating loss and a startling report some of Ireland's darkest parts.

This wonderful art of fiction is a factual yet sad depiction of the world. Based in Ireland the book explores the deep dark corners of abuses endured by the defenceless. Being a fellow victim himself the lead character Tom feels the need to protect the ones around him. The book emulates a range of emotions that can make or break a human being. But Tom carries on with life with such dignity despite the fact that his confidence is betrayed upon by the people closest to him. I really loved the language that was used describe even the simplest of events. And I especially enjoyed the narration by Stephen Hogan. His voice kept the Guinness guzzling Irish essence of this book intact!

The descriptions of Ireland in its 90’s was most exhilarating. As someone living in Ireland for the past 5 years I jumped up each time I heard the name of a familiar place or a common phrase. This book explores some darker subjects which are still true to the day. It forces us to look at and acknowledge the ugly parts of humankind. I hope this book inspires people to do and be more good in the world.

Reader advisory: be aware that this book discusses child sexual rape, with two retellings of very young girls being raped and needing medical attention just in the first half of the book. I was sickened by the description, even knowing the stories of the children harmed need to be told. The ghosts of sexual assault of children permeate the story. No where in any of the prepub materials and reviews I read about this book did it mention the abuse.

Even with Barry's exquisite prose, this is a hard book to listen to.

Narrator was excellent and sounded realistic as a retired man plagued by the effects of aging.