Kevin Barry is the author of four novels and three story collections. His awards include the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Goldsmiths Prize, the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award and the Lannan Foundation Literary Award. His stories and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, Granta and elsewhere. His novel, Night Boat to Tangier, was an Irish number one bestseller, was longlisted for the Booker Prize and named one of the Top Ten Books of the Year by the New York Times. He also works as a playwright and screenwriter, and he lives in County Sligo, Ireland.
Kevin Barry lights out for the territory and once again comes back with a shining nugget of gold. The Heart in Winter is a glorious and haunted yarn, with all the elements - the doomed lovers, the bounty hunters, the knife-fights and whisky-soaked songs - brought to mysterious life by the heft and polish of the Barry sentence. Marvellous -- JON McGREGOR A great big rollicking ballad of a novel. A love story, and a slice of history, in a language as close to song as literature will ever get -- COLUM McCANN A haunting, hypnotic love story of two damaged souls. Barry's talent is breath-taking - he is a true original and, once again, words obey his call. This is a propulsive read from a writer at the height of his powers -- MARY COSTELLO [The Heart in Winter is] an Irish western, by turns funny and tragic, full of typically outrageous figures and sublime writing -- ALEX PRESTON * * Observer * * Such a great read, so warm and so completely engaging of the reader's feelings -- MIKE McCORMACK Praise for Kevin Barry: Barry is a clairvoyant narrator of the male psyche and a consistent lyrical visionary * * Guardian * * One of the most abundantly talented novelists writing today * * Daily Telegraph * * If prose were gold and diamonds there'd be thousands of hell-bent prospectors heading for the Black Hills of Kevin Barry's glistening, sparkling novel -- SEBASTIAN BARRY Barry is such a deft and generous writer * * New York Times * * Barry writes with real exuberance * * Sunday Times * *