Books › Night Boat To Tangier
Night Boat To Tangier
255 pages
A darkly hilarious, beautifully written vigil where two aging gangsters wait for a ferry and reckon with the ghosts of their violent past.
What it feels like
Reading this novel feels like sitting in a dimly lit, smoke-filled room with two dangerous but captivating storytellers. The pace is deliberately meandering, anchored by a nocturnal vigil at a Spanish ferry terminal that serves as a launchpad into the characters' turbulent memories. It is a masterclass in voice and atmosphere, wrapping the reader in a mood that is simultaneously dread-soaked and deeply melancholic. The prose is the real star here, rhythmic, darkly hilarious, and soaring with an unexpected Irish lyricism that elevates the gritty subject matter. It delights readers who crave character-driven literary fiction where the sharp, cynical banter of terrible men slowly gives way to a profound, aching meditation on aging, regret, and the inescapable ghosts of the past.
- Mood
- shadowy
- regret-soaked
- gritty
- atmospheric
- haunting
- Tone
- darkly comic
- melancholic
- lyrical
- wry
- nostalgic
- Pace
- meandering
- Themes
- aging and obsolescence · toxic friendship · ghosts of the past · father-daughter estrangement · the toll of violence
- The writing
- A masterclass in rhythm and voice, blending hardboiled grit with soaring, poetic Irish lyricism.
- The arc
- Transitions from sharp, cynical banter into a profound and aching meditation on regret and lost time.
- Who it's for
- Lovers of dialogue-driven literary fiction who appreciate beautiful sentences wrapped around terrible men.
Content notes
- drug trafficking
- violence
- profanity
- child estrangement
About the book
From the acclaimed author of the international sensations City of Bohane and Beatlebone, a striking and gorgeous new novel of two aging criminals at the butt ends of their damage-filled careers. A superbly melancholic melody of a novel full of beautiful phrases and terrible men. In the dark waiting room of the ferry terminal in the sketchy Spanish port of Algeciras, two aging Irishmen -- Maurice Hearne and Charlie Redmond, longtime partners in the lucrative and dangerous enterprise of smuggling drugs -- sit at night, none too patiently. It is October 23, 2018, and they are expecting Maurice's estranged daughter, Dilly, to either arrive on a boat coming from Tangier or depart on one heading there. This nocturnal vigil will initiate an extraordinary journey back in time to excavate their shared history of violence, romance, mutual betrayals and serial exiles, rendered with the dark humor and the hardboiled Hibernian lyricism that have made Kevin Barry one of the most striking and admired fiction writers at work today.
In the dark waiting room of the ferry terminal in the sketchy Spanish port of Algeciras, two aging Irishmen-- Maurice Hearne and Charlie Redmond, longtime partners in the lucrative and dangerous enterprise of smuggling drugs-- sit at night, none too patiently. It is October 23, 2018, and they are expecting Maurice's estranged daughter, Dilly, to either arrive on a boat coming from Tangier or depart on one heading there. Their conversations cause them to excavate their shared history of violence, romance, mutual betrayals and serial exiles. -- adapted from jacket
Description from Open Library.
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