There’s a special pleasure in picking up a new Kevin Barry book. I know I’m likely in for a wild ride of a story and sentences that force the English language into strange and musical shapes. To me, Barry’s prose is best when he reads it aloud—showing all the strange music of Irish English.

Read more of my review online in the July/August issue of The Brooklyn Rail.

Fascinating stuff.....I can't wait to read more from this author. Thank you so much for sharing. People are gonna love this book!

If you've ever read a Kevin Barry novel, you know to not go in with any expectations. The premise to The Heart in the Winter would have you assume this is standard-fair historical fiction but it's Kevin Barry so of course it's crass and funny and just a little bit off-kilter.

In a Montana mining town, mostly populated by Irish immigrants, Tom meets Polly and falls in love with her. There's just one problem. Polly's married to a religious fanatic. The two steal a horse and some money and try to make a run for it but of course, hijinks ensue. Barry's wit is as sharp as ever in The Heart of Winter but I think this may be his best plot yet. I tandem read the print version and listened to the audio and Barry does such a fantastic job with the narration. This will definitely be one of my favorites of 2024.

Review of "The Heart in Winter" published on BookBrowse: https://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/4853/the-heart-in-winter

I liked this book. The voice took a beat to get used to, due to Irish dialect and sentence structure. I was expecting a leisurely Western with a dash of romance, like Paulette Jiles. But this book became very dark and brutal!

This is the story of a young couple on the run, fleeing the woman's husband. The marriage was transactional. The attraction between the two lovers was sizzling. They travel across the west towards San Francisco on their stolen Palomino and take refuge in a cabin in the woods for the winter. Meanwhile, they are being pursued by a posse of men determined to capture the woman and bring her back. The plot is pretty standard fare, but what makes it special is the setting, 1891 Montana, and the delivery, which is told with an Irish flare. This was an amazing book, a complete surprise, and one of my favorite books this year so far!

Within an hour of arriving in Butte, Polly is married to Long Anthony Harrington. It’s 1891 and she is a mail order bride. It doesn’t take long for her to realize her marriage to Mr. Harrington was a huge mistake. With no other options, she wiles away her days pondering her situation. Enter Tom Rourke. Even though he is the town’s druggie, he does have some redeeming qualities. Polly and Tom fall in love. They decided to run away. Harrington sends out bounty hunters to track them down.

It took me awhile to get the hang of Mr. Barry’s writing voice. I must admit to thoughts of giving up on the story. But I really wanted to find out what would happen to Polly and Tom. Sometimes it’s the books that stray from my typical reading norm that have the biggest impact on me. The more I think about this book the more I realize how smartly it was written.

I received a copy from Doubleday via Netgalley. The publication date is July 9, 2024.

Not a fan of the characters’ dissolute lifestyles and frequent obscenities, I nearly gave up early on my first Kevin Barry novel, The Heart in Winter. I am glad that I didn’t. Aside from the persistent cursing, Barry’s creative writing style captured my interest. Rarely would anyone describe fear as making one “giddy,” as “almost singing with it” nor would most writers think of winter “as the sour landlord of the forest” or describe an immigrant family as “engraved with its own misery.” Eventually, I also found myself caring about Tom Rourke and Polly Gillespie even if I would never want them as friends.

As the story opens, readers first get to know the dark side of 1891 Butte and become acquainted with “the calamity that was Tom Rourke,” an Irishman who earns alcohol and drug money by writing letters for lonely men in search of mail order brides. Polly, one of those brides with a questionable background but convincing tactics, soon arrives to marry Captain Anthony Harrington, the prosperous, obsessively religious, and much older head of the Anaconda mining company. Within a couple weeks, Polly and Tom Rourke, who arranged her marriage to Harrington, have stolen a horse and money and set out during winter for San Francisco to make a new life by the ocean. Caught up in their sexual bliss, the lovers give little thought to dangers that lie ahead. Three Cornish villains have been hired by Harrington to find the pair, bring back Polly, and do whatever they choose to Tom.

Kevin Barry’s carefully chosen epigraph sets the stage for and lies at the heart of the story: “I do not see any beauty in self-restraint.”--Mary MacLane. Nothing about The Heart in Winter is restrained except, arguably, its excellent ending. After completing the book, I turned to Google in search of the epigraph’s source. A Canadian-born writer who grew up in Butte, notorious Mary MacLane did not know the meaning of self-restraint despite growing up in an era when so-called “good women” knew little else and accepted their assigned roles. In raucous mining town Butte, Mary encountered all types and, still a teen, began keeping a diary focusing on her rebellious dissatisfaction and her craving for intense experience. “It is not deaths and murders and plots and wars that make life tragedy,” she wrote; “It is Nothing that makes life tragedy. It is day after day, and year after year, and Nothing.” Desiring to escape the “Nothing” of her life and having no desire to be a “good woman,” Mary wrote of waiting for the devil to come, of her eagerness to escape Butte with him, to experience with him a brief period of intense sexual passion and happiness. Although Mary had no desire to be a “good woman,” she felt that fleeting, intense period of love would enable her to face the rest of life’s nothingness. Submitting her diary under the title Waiting for the Devil to Come, MacLane saw it published in 1902 with an innocuous title chosen by the publisher--The Story of Mary MacLane. Brisk sales and the resulting royalties enabled her to escape Butte for life in the big city.

In the diary entry dated February 3, MacLane penned a colorful account of Butte’s multicultural/International population, promiscuity, and “Bohemianism.” Even her mention of the predominant groups as Irish and Cornish takes on new life in Barry’s two protagonists and three villains.

Butte’s notorious Mary MacLane no doubt played a role in Kevin Barry’s writing of My Heart in Winter, the epigraph he chose may have been intended to lead readers in that direction. Interestingly, Mary envisioned her passionate love affair with the devil as occurring during the colorful growing season whereas Barry intentionally sets Polly Gillespie’s time with her lover Tom Rourke, described as having the devil in him, during harsh winter.

Although readers need not read Mary MacLane’s diary to read Kevin Barry’s latest novel, I recommend the diary readily available on Amazon and Audible but also free at Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive. Following this advice will improve some readers’ opinions of the book as the research did mine and should significantly enhance all readers’ understanding.

Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for an advance reader egalley of Kevin Barry’s new novel, which may not be my personal cup of tea but which I admire and recommend, nonetheless.

At This Moment His Heart Turned

“A western, with Irish accents,” is how Kevin Barry described his new novel, “The Heart in Winter.” In tone and setting, you can think the HBO series “Deadwood,” although told from a pair of young lovers' hearts rather than saloon owners or lawmen. This is 1891 wild west Butte, Montana, a town where 10,000 men have immigrated from Cork, Ireland to find work in the copper mines. Tough and gritty times.

A rough young degenerate poet, Tom Rourke, is spending his days drenched in alcohol and opium, unsure whether to leave town or just end things altogether. He is earning a few bucks assisting a photographer when a newly married couple come in for a portrait. Tom is floored by the bride, Polly Gillespie, and the world pinwheeled.

“...she got a portrait done and that boy was looking at her so hard it was like he just discovered eyes.”

Instantly in love, there is nothing to do but cast their fate to the wind. Tom robs a brothel, sets fire to it to cover his tracks, and the two of them journey headlong into Montana’s wilderness with only the vaguest of notions how to survive a trek to San Francisco.

Kevin Barry writes like no one else. Paragraphs may be pages long, but it flows smoothly as the poetry, the dialogue, and the humor are just the slightest bit off expectations– it all blends together and creates an odd but authentic world. Tom and Polly are unforgettable characters, too– naive lovers who have gone all in– shrugging off the knowledge that there will probably be consequences to their blind faith. They speak of death often– more of its inevitability than its threat.

I mentioned the TV series Deadwood. That is probably a good barometer if you are unsure if this is your type of reading. The violence, raw humor, and multisyllabic array of curse words will be triggers to some. “Heart in Winter” also shares many of that show’s treasures, as well.

While approaching this book with some optimism, I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Ready for a western adventure, I was enchanted by the prose and the world Kevin Barry conjured. I was probably most impressed with how Tom Rourke began as such an unlikeable stain, only to develop into such a fascinating character over the course of time.

Thank you to Doubleday Books and Netgalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #TheHeartInWinter #NetGalley

A gritty atmospheric tale of two star crossed lovers on the run in the West in 1891. How much you enjoy this might well depend on how much you're up for a story with barbs. Tom is a drug addicted alcoholic who makes his living writing letters to potential brides for men who can't put pen to paper. One of these turns out to be Polly, whose back story is vague at best but who becomes his obsession. She's unhappy with her husband and taken with Tom and so they steal away (and steal to do it) with the hope of making it to San Francisco. But this is not an easy journey, given that it's winter and they're being chased by some quite nasty men. No spoilers but know that it's also not easy reading but it's certainly dynamic. Barry has a way with descriptions- he makes the smells, the dirt, the cold feel alive. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. An interesting and propulsive read.

**Features:**
- Star-crossed lovers trying to escape their past lives through the American wilderness
- An Irish style Western taking place in 1891
- Beautiful story that can also be a bit raunchy and funny
- Poetic prose that utilizes a strong dialect

To Tom Rourke, Polly Gillespie is more lovely than any poem or ballad he could spin. Polly had never expected to find someone who could understand her like Tom. Will their clandestine romance lead to their salvation or their doom? This book is beautifully written and heartfelt at times, but it does not take itself too seriously. Though a Western at heart, it takes place just after ‘westward expansion’ and provides a very different view of this time period. There’s definitely a strong dialect to the prose being used and it might take a while for some readers to adjust to it. Even though this book never quite spoke to me personally, I think it is well written and would be thoroughly enjoyable to the right audience.

**A beautiful romp through the wilderness**

With few prospects left to her, Polly could do worse than mine captain Long Anthony Harrington. Though stuck in the small copper mining town of Butte, Montana with a husband that seems to love God more than her, she has everything she needs except more interesting company. However, when she is with town degenerate Tom Rourke, none of that seems to matter. Soon, they find themselves on a stolen horse on the way to San Francisco where they can disappear and start a new life together. But their pursuers are hot on their trail and the journey to safety will be more than they bargained for.

Though it can take a little bit of time to get into, this book is beautifully written. The descriptions aren’t just evocative, they also feel very unique and appropriate for the characters. Barry definitely manages to capture both the beauty and harshness of the landscape Polly and Tom have to traverse. As clunky and crude as the characters’ actions and decisions are, they are also well realized. There is very little that is ‘warm’ and/or ‘glorifying’ in the way that a lot of other literary novels can be, but it is uniquely beautiful all the same.

**A boggling misadventure that edges on ridiculous**

Even though I think this story is very well written and likely accomplishes what the author wanted, it really wasn’t for me. It is hard for me to figure out exactly why, but I think it comes down to simply wanting more from these characters. I know that some of the intended humor comes from the horrible and impulsive decisions the characters make. However, some of these (big and small) seem a little too ridiculous. Both characters have had to be clever and contain a certain amount of knowledge in order to make it this far in the time/place they live in. Yet there are many times where the characters seem lacking in ways that feel inconsistent with who they are and it makes some of the resulting situations annoying rather than tense or humorous. Sometimes, it even made it hard to enjoy the clever banter. This definitely might just be a me problem, but it is what it is.

A writer with a dope habit and an unofficial mail order bride with a past meet in frontier-era Butte. Is there any way this romance ends well? An elopement turns into a manhunt through the old American West, as their attachment to each other gets filled in through their adventure.
The main couple’s interior lives are fairly developed with the help from chapters that shift perspective back and forth. The remaining cast is somewhat more of set dressing, their motivations so two dimensional that the plot moves along in a genre-predictable way. What sets the book apart is the writing; all characters have very distinct voices and the narration a very specific style (some might say crass in spots?). Some will really like it; others will be put off. I found it sometimes a little too grand for the setting (charismatic light? Ignorant wind?) when plain speaking would distract less, but that’s personal preference.
Overall, I enjoyed the setting and adventure story; both are memorable. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!

I have looked forward to reading this novel for a long time; Kevin Barry's language is electric and compelling at every turn, and this novel has a voice I would follow anywhere. The Heart in Winter is a magnificent yarn, too, with a desperate urgency in the plot driven by Tom and Polly's depth of feeling as much as the structure of their flight from Butte. There are as many unexpected (and thrilling) choices in the method of narration as in the events of the narration, and this is always a pleasure with Barry's work.

A stylistically complex, darkly funny and profane love story set in 1890s Montana. Two lovers flee across a wintry west with no map and no plan.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

It took me a bit to warm up to this book, but once I got into the rhythm of the writing style, I was in it. The story is told in a sort of run on, rambling way that really works. The characters were interesting, the descriptions were vivid, and this is a story that feels lived in. Overall, very much enjoyed.

Late in Kevin Barry’s amazing novel, The Heart in Winter, rumors start to race around Montana and Idaho as people recount what they heard about Tom Rourke and Polly Gillespie’s doomed love. It sounds like a tall tale or sordid scandal or a blues song the way folks tell it. They’re not far wrong. There are elements to Tom and Polly’s story that, if we hadn’t just read them, would be dismissed as tropes from an old Western.

Tom Rourke is a man not long for this world. He trudges the dirty streets of Butte, Montana, looking for drink or drugs and avoiding people he owes money. He makes money for his vices with odd jobs and writing letters for illiterate men and selling song lyrics to bars and brothels. While Tom goes on his drunk, we see brief scenes of Tom plying his trade writing letters back east for men who are hunting for a wife. To be fair, there weren’t that many ways to make money in Butte in 1881 if you didn’t want to be a miner.

We’re given to believe that he’s pretty good at talking women into marriage (possibly because these women can’t see what they’re getting into). One of these women, Polly Gillespie, arrives shortly after Tom’s bender. His letters talked her into marrying Long Antony Harrington, a captain at Anaconda Copper. But when Tom spots her at the photographer’s studio where he earns a bit of money, he falls instantly in love. Or lust. Polly also falls, too, and the two begin a passionate affair. The next thing anyone knows, Tom has hatched a plan for the two to run away to San Francisco.

Reading this book was a peculiar experience for me. Much of the book takes place in the Idaho Territory. (Idaho didn’t become a state until 1890.) I lived in Pocatello (the couple’s first destination) for about fifteen years and Barry references several places I think only Idaho people know of: Driggs, St. Anthony, the Portneuf (formerly Pontneuf) and Snake Rivers, Pocatello itself. It didn’t take much of Barry’s beautiful and idiosyncratic language to bring the Idaho wilderness to life for me. (Thankfully, there are far fewer outlaws in the woods these days.)

Barry’s writing does take some easing into. I had to slow myself down more than once to get the rhythm of Tom’s internal monologue. Once I had a feel for Tom’s turn of phrase, I fell in love with the narrative’s use of language and vibrant vocabulary. The plot is utterly gripping and the characters, like I said above, could’ve walked right out of a song or a dime novel—but in the best possible way. This book is an incredible ride.

Thank you to Net Galley and Penguin Random House Publishing for an early copy of The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry

Both stark and deep, The Heart in Winter balances the rough terrain of Montana/Idaho in late 19th century with the feelings and emotions of a man and woman on the run following theft, arson and murder.

Tom Rourke, an Irish ne'er-do-well with a penchant for dope and a gift for writing letters to prospective brides, and the recently married but unhappy Polly are bound for California after tragic events force them to escape the area. Along the way, circumstances offer them several brief reprieves before they face the consequences of their actions.

Author Kevin Barry's use of strong imagery and beautiful language gives readers a chance to simply read aloud to capture the strength of the text.

A loping plot of lovers on the run, nominally a western, but really a new and novel opportunity for Kevin Barry to explore his favorite themes of disreputable love, scoundrels, and fragments of warmth in an often pitiless world.

What he does best, he does well here; beautiful sentences set to hypnotic cadences, wry humor, and unblinking brutality. The main characters are well drawn and compelling, but it's in the supporting characters that float in and out of the narrative that the real pleasures are found. Each one has their own internal narrative, and Barry wrings humanity out of even the most despicable villains.

If the plot is slight, and the minor-key finale a bit perfunctory, that's not enough to deprive the book of its fifth star. A terrific read from one of the best writers working.

Imagine a beautifully written story about forbidden love, escaped love on the run, the harsh winter landscape of Montana in 1891, a manhunt driven by revenge from a wronged husband, cold, warm, touching, and brutal. The poetically gifted Kevin Barry pens such a literary masterpiece in The Heart in Winter.

In a language that is expressive and poignant, we are drawn to the emotions and plights of the two main characters, Polly Gillespie and Tom Rourke. Polly is a mail-order bride-of-sorts to Anthony Harrington, owner of a copper mine, who habitually self-flagellates in his religious fidelity. Unsurprisingly, Polly finds a more significant attraction to the young Tom Rourke, a loveable degenerate fond of drink, drugs, suicidal tendencies, a naïve opportunist, a photographer and a ballad maker.

Polly and Tom establish an immediate connection, and considering their respective lives, decide to steal a horse and money and escape unprepared into the wild winter, where they must now stay ahead of a posse led by the ruthless Jago Marrak. Death joins the chase, and remarkable incidents tease us that perhaps they have luck on their side, or is it just a matter of time? Polly and Tom's infatuation for each other keeps them in their own bubble, and you can’t help but hope they are given a chance to be together and explore love across a lifetime.

Kevin Barry is incredible at weaving desolation and warmth, passion and brutality, fear and love, compelling characters, and a landscape that escapes the page. His poetic writing flows with a modulated pace that holds the reader’s attention and imagination as the story unfolds.

I want to thank Doubleday Books and NetGalley for providing a free ARC in return for an honest review. The publication date is 9 July 2024, and I highly recommend getting a copy and settling for an exceptional literary read.

By now it’s no longer surprising to KB completists (such as myself) to find his novels and stories leaping off the page at you. In his frequently comma-less and always beautiful prose the story gets told, characters are fleshed-out and have a pulse, and not a page goes by without delight. The Heart in Winter expands upon Barry's range (it's set in the American West in 1891, rather than the author's native Ireland), but he's lost not a step in conveying the kind of pathos, despair, love and doom, that have haunted all of his work. Tom and Polly are genuinely star-crossed lovers and as they seek to escape from a stifling life in Butte, Montana, violence and tragedy haunt their every move. The new novel is compulsively readable and a worthy addition to the great Irish writer's oeuvre. Highly recommend. (Thanks to NetGalley for advance copy.)