Éire to Everywhere: Stories Without Borders with Kevin Barry

Acclaimed author Kevin Barry joins us at EPIC for our December edition of Éire to Everywhere: Stories Without Borders. His latest novel, The Heart in Winter, sees Barry return to his inimitable blend of poetic precision, pitch-dark wit, and haunting emotional depth, all set against the raw, atmospheric landscape of the American West in the late 19th century.

In this special evening, Kevin will reflect on the inspirations behind The Heart of Winter, exploring the intersections of memory, love, isolation, and the uncanny that characterise so much of his work. He’ll speak candidly about his creative process, the people and places that spark his imagination, as well as answer any questions you might have for him.

The talk will conclude with a Q&A session, inviting the audience to engage with Kevin directly and dig deeper into the story’s themes and the man behind the prose.

Copies of The Heart of Winter will be available to purchase on the night, with a book signing to follow.

When Polly Gillespie arrives in the harsh mining town of Butte, Montana, she’s come seeking a new life – as the mail-order bride to a powerful, god-fearing man she has never met. But the marriage offers no comfort, only constraint, and when she crosses paths with Tom Rourke – a drifting Irish dreamer with a hunger for freedom — a dangerous love begins to take root.

Haunted by their pasts and pursued through a brutal winter wilderness, Tom and Polly flee westward, desperate to escape the lives they’ve left behind. But in a land ruled by blizzards, bounty hunters, and buried regrets, survival itself is a reckless act. As snow closes in and the past closes tighter, both must reckon with how far they’re willing to go – and what they’re willing to lose – in pursuit of something like freedom.

Kevin Barry is an award-winning Irish author from Limerick, known for his dark comedy and lyrical prose. His career began with a collection of short stories, There Are Little Kingdoms, published in 2007, which won him the prestigious Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, and since then he has published four novels, City of Bohane, Beatlebone, Night Boat to Tangier, and The Heart in Winter. His work is consistently nominated for awards, with his third novel long-listed for the 2019 Booker Prize. Barry now lives in Sligo.

“A quarter of century in the making, the novelist’s magnum opus is a story of violence and contradictions; opportunity versus risk, love versus revenge.” – The Irish Independent

“Barry has done something refreshingly different with the format, adapting some of the same cinematic architecture employed by other modern westerns like HBO’s Deadwood – humour, violence, history, character depth – though there is a certain knowingness contained within the dialogue, something indefinable that renders it Barry’s own.” – RTÉ

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