Night Boat to Tangier

A Novel

By: Kevin Barry

Narrated by: Kevin Barry

One of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2019
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, Lit Hub, The Millions, The Paris Review, and NPR
No. 1 Irish Times Bestseller
Longlisted for The Booker Prize

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 tail 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.

Brilliant performance

If you want an example of how a narrator should perform, this is the Audible you should listen to, even if the performance is by the writer. The writer should be person the most in tune with his characters. Here, Kevin Barry is perfectly modulated to his drama, it’s gritty settings, and its characters soaked in regret, mental and physical pain, and abuse. Visceral and vivid, Barry never relents on telling this tough dark story in an austere, poetic, style. Read the book while listening to the Audible. It is just one of those kind of books that have to be experienced. Kevin Barry provides every aspect.

dark well written

This was a bit too literary. I find it hard to concentrate on literary books when driving. The story is reminiscent and regrets, not a strong story line. The writing is beautiful and haunting.

The writing

A Hibernian Vladimir and Estragon

… traveling from The Four Faced Liar to the port of Algeciras and back.
Waiting for a small girl, a pretty girl… with dreds.
Love, regret and heroin.
Well? Shall we go?
Yes, let's go.
They do not move.

Fantastic story enhanced by the author's perfoy

Everyone in my family read this book a couple of years ago and loved it. I skipped it for some reason but decided to listen to it on audible. what a fantastic story. Its one of the best reading performances I've ever heard. Took me a while to get used to the Irish accent but it adds so much.

Poetic and enigmatic

Exalts the aspirations and futility of common crooks, in a tapestry of mistake and painted remembrance.