The Heart in Winter

THE SUNDAY TIMES HISTORICAL NOVEL OF THE YEAR THE INSTANT IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER PICKED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN, NEW STATESMAN, OBSERVER, IRISH TIMES, INDEPENDENT, IRISH INDEPENDENT, IRISH EXAMINER, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, SCOTSMAN, THE TIMES AND ECONOMIST AN i-PAPER AND SUNDAY TIMES BOOK TO READ THIS SUMMER SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 WALTER SCOTT PRIZE 'An absolute belter of a book' ANNE ENRIGHT He was ready to die for love. He just needed to find the right girl. October, 1891. Tom Rourke is a poet struggling to make a life amongst the Irish migrant workers in Butte, Montana. He is a doper and a drinker and a fearsome degenerate. His life is heading nowhere fast. That is until he meets Polly Gillespie, the new bride of a devout mine captain, and a thunderbolt love affair takes spark. Tom and Polly strike out west on a stolen horse. But a posse of deranged Cornish gunsmen are in hot pursuit of the lovers, and closing in fast . . .

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.