The Black Snow

A Novel

By: Paul Lynch

Narrated by: John Keating

The startling new novel from a brilliant young Irish novelist on the rise, who "has a sensational gift for a sentence" (Colum McCann on Red Sky in Morning).

In Donegal in the spring of 1945, a farmhand runs into a burning barn and does not come out alive. The farm's owner, Barnabas Kane, can only look on as his friend dies and all 43 of his cattle are destroyed in the blaze.

Following the disaster, the bull-headed and proudly self-sufficient Barnabas is forced to reach out to the community for assistance. But resentment simmers over the farmhand's death, and Barnabas and his family begin to believe their efforts at recovery are being sabotaged.

Barnabas is determined to hold firm. Yet his teenage son struggles under the weight of a terrible secret, and his wife is suffocated by the uncertainty surrounding their future. As Barnabas fights ever harder for what is rightfully his, his loved ones are drawn ever closer to a fate that should never have been theirs.

In The Black Snow, Paul Lynch takes the pastoral novel and - with the calmest of hands - tears it apart. With beautiful, haunting prose, Lynch illuminates what it means to live through crisis and puts to the test our deepest certainties about humankind.

©2015 Paul Lynch (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A lapidary young master.... Here, as is often the case in the work of our own Cormac McCarthy, the beauty and force of the language works congruently with the violence in the story." (Alan Cheuse, NPR)

"Some of the most beautiful writing I have ever read. Vivid, unsettling, and intensely enjoyable." (Donal Ryan, Booker-nominated author of The Spinning Heart)

"Lynch's language, which is musical, close, and alive, evokes something that seems quintessentially Irish - as if you were sitting by the bard himself, in a damp, skunky pub, on a dark rainy night, as he tells you his frightening tale." (Damaris Colhoun, Daily Beast)

The Grim Conviction of Barnabas’ Story

The wonderful prose delivered wonderfully kept me in this grim story of Barnabas Kane, his wife and son, dog and villagers. I kept hoping for a positive turn, but things only degraded. The writing is really engaging, nonetheless. Loved Annie’s advice.

Lynch is a master of his craft

A beautifully written tragedy that deserves everyone's attention. I couldn't put it down. I'll read anything Lynch writes from here on out.

Too depressing

When I heard about Lynch's new book winning the Pulitzer price, but it only coming out later in December, I looked at his previous novels. I'm a lover of Irish authors authors (Black, Banville, Barry, French, etc.) and was delighted to discover a new author. I read books about Michael Collins, the Civil War, the Magdalene Sisters, too.
The book description gives a pretty good hint at the darkness of the novel. However, it turned out to dark to me. Not just the endless description of cattle that perished in the blaze. I found the language stilted and depressing at the same time. Keating's sonorous void and unchanging monotonous reading didn't help. I just couldn't get into the book. maybe I'm missing out on a gem? Hesitant now to buy the new prize winning book!