This was going to be a St Patrick’s Day post so it is a little late. However, it’s superlative Irish storytelling from Sebastian Barry. A restless novel about love, this is cruel life, and this is an ageing retired police officer who sinks in and out of memories, reality and daydreams. Tom Kettle lives in a small dwelling added onto the side of a castle on a stretch of Irish coastline overlooking granite jetties and a rather fetching island “skulking in the near distance.”

Tom’s past may or may not come to haunt him regarding a murder case he was involved in many years ago. He still has his policeman wits about him when the cops come a-knocking and he goes along with the re-opening of a cold case, the death of a well-known priest which seemed an accident and was logged as an accident but modern forensics has reopened the evidence file and started testing old DNA results.

A touch of the surreal here, words weave in and out of Tom’s mind like an hypnotic dance of discomfort, me thinking How did the priest die? Who was involved? What will the DNA testing reveal?

Gradually, old God’s time exposes the past…

The background story ebbs and flows recounting the past and present of Tom’s life, adored wife June and their two children Winnie and Joe. I puzzled over the things he sees, reality or illusions? Who lives, who has died? Mr Tomelty must be his landlord, but the mother, the mysterious others? What is past, what is present, what is true? There are some quite graphic retellings as well. The paedophile priest who horribly abused and traumatised young children. Not a novel for immature or sensitive readers, it does contain adult experiences, thoughts and flashbacks. It would certainly make a strong addition to any book club discussion.

My Favourite Quote
Tom musing “Enough time goes by and it is as if old things never happened.
Things once fresh, immediate, terrible, receding away into old God’s time,
like the walkers walking so far along Killiney Strand that,
as you watch them,
there is a moment when they are only a black speck,
and then they’re gone.”

Page 166 “Old God’s Time” by Sebastian Barry 2023    

The mind of author Sebastian Barry must be a complex thing. I cannot describe the intense settings and the lyrical descriptions Barry has used, the language of description I think many Irish writers seem to instinctively master. Page 104 “On remembering towns, Tom thought every single place would be a peg with a memory hanging from it.” Further along, his flight to Mexico was odd but grimly relevant.

This book reminds me of, but is not similar to, “Under Milkwood” by Dylan Thomas and “One Moonlit Night” by Caradog Prichard, both use human strength, sadness and suffering taken almost to an art-form. I also enjoyed the modern twist in “Himself” by Jess Kidd and “Love and Summer” by humanist William Trevor (yes, mixing Irish and Welsh authors) who mastered that dark troublesome inner voice, that unforgettable undercurrent which makes a good story excellent.

On the whole, I wanted Tom to stay safe in his little room overlooking the sea but the direction and pace of this novel had other ideas. It enchanted me. If you like mystery fiction with a twist, you will be swept along by remarkable literary undercurrents with this one.

❤ Gretchen Bernet-Ward