The Heart in Winter

A Novel

By: Kevin Barry

Narrated by: Kevin Barry

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK: THE LA TIMES, THE GUARDIAN, AND MORE! • Award-winning writer Kevin Barry’s first novel set in America, a savagely funny and achingly romantic tale of young lovers on the lam in 1890s Montana.

"A wedding of Cormac McCarthy with Flann O’Brien; a western but also the most Irish of novels; a tragedy written as farce . . . inspiring joy with every incident, every concept, every sentence."—The Guardian

October 1891. A hard winter approaches across the Rocky Mountains. The city of Butte, Montana is rich on copper mines and rampant with vice and debauchery among a hard-living crowd of immigrant Irish workers. Here we find Tom Rourke, a young poet and ballad-maker of the town, but also a doper, a drinker, and a fearsome degenerate. Just as he feels his life is heading nowhere fast, Polly Gillespie arrives in town as the new bride of the extremely devout mine captain Long Anthony Harrington. A thunderbolt love affair takes spark between Tom and Polly and they strike out west on a stolen horse, moving through the badlands of Montana and Idaho, and briefly an idyll of wild romance perfects itself. But a posse of deranged Cornish gunmen are soon in hot pursuit and closing in fast. With everything to lose and the safety and anonymity of San Francisco still a distant speck on their horizon, the choices they make will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

In this love story for the ages—lyrical, profane and propulsive—Kevin Barry has once again demonstrated himself to be a master stylist, an unrivalled humourist, and a true poet of the human heart.

©2024 Kevin Barry (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE LA TIMES, THE GUARDIAN, THE NEW STATESMAN, THE IRISH TIMES, THE JOURNAL, AND THE OBSERVER

"A dazzling tale of lovers on the run in Montana . . . Barry has written us a love story that never seems false or cheap, and an adventure where the violence is never gloating or desensitised. It’s a wedding of Cormac McCarthy with Flann O’Brien; a western but also the most Irish of novels; a tragedy written as farce . . . inspiring joy with every incident, every concept, every sentence."—The Guardian

"All that should be required for you to saddle up and ride hard toward your nearest bookstore on July 9 is this: Kevin Barry does Deadwood...Barry never disappoints, but this one is a pure pleasure. A thrilling, tumescent, poetically vulgar, big-hearted romp of a novel…utterly electrifying."—LitHub

"It takes a sublime artist like Kevin Barry to map the wildest outposts of the human heart. He captures his poet bandit's spirit through language that is consistently original, consistently exhilarating."—Claire Kilroy

The wild west seen through Irish eyes

This love story carries a ponderous and wry tone, and I loved it. Kevin Barry's reading of his own book is brilliant and makes it a figurative page-turner. The tone fits the harsh and violent world of Irish immigrants in Butte, Montana in the early 1890s. Mr. Barry weaves evil, humor and two lovers into a tale whose outcome seems inevitable. My only critique is of ellipsis - leaving the reader to deduce what happened in a couple of climactic points that were central to understanding the story.

Kevin Barry’s speaking his own words, almost as if he were making it up as he went along.

My problem is with the app. I can’t seem to find the right tap or swipe or whatever to get to a screen where you can set a bookmark or go through the chapter headings.

Narration too hard to understand. I focused more on the dialect than the story.

So convoluted and confusing. Disappointing characterization. Had to listen to the first chapter two times to understand it.

Solid as always

Kevin Barry is one of my favorite writers of all time. And one of the few authors who can narrate his own work and do it justice. Some laugh out loud moments, and many well crafted sentences, with many adjectives used with shameless abandon. Top shelf stuff for sure.

Beautifully written with delicious descriptions.

A love story that takes place in early Butte Montana. With amazing descriptions of life during that time from many perspectives showcasing people’s resilience despite this hard life. I loved it !!!

Montana love story

Montana love story. Late nineteenth century in Butte. Weddings still arranged by post. One young bride with a checkered background married a penitent and then falls in love with an Irish mine worker. They decide to run off to San Francisco. They travel west on a stolen horse. They are overtaken by a band of ruffians. They try to get back together.

Raw and beautiful story in Butte

Beautiful prose and well read by the author. My grandfather lived and worked in the copper mines of Butte and died of ‘black lung disease’ while my father was just 11 years old. I know the area well and Kevin Barry describes it accurately. Great story.

Excellent story. Excellent narration.

Superb in every respect. Compelling story. Perfect narration. I devoured it about as fast as I could and savored every bit.

Wonderful lyrical book.

Like a song, each passage flowed like a poem. Great sense of place and time.

the voice, the lyricism of language

I found it all laid on a bit thick at first, the accent, the purple language. maybe not purple, maybe, let us say, very rich. gilded. it grew on me, and now I miss the author's voice, and the story, and his gorgeous words, very much.