This story is narrated by Thomas McNulty, who escapes the starvation of Ireland’s Great Famine and arrives in Missouri. As a penniless teenager under the age of 16, he meets John Cole. The two boys form an immediate, deep bond that blossoms into a lifelong romantic relationship. To survive, they take a job in a saloon in St. Louis, where they dress up as women and dance to entertain local miners.
Once they outgrow their cross-dressing roles, Thomas and John enlist in the U.S. Army. They are deployed to the western frontier to fight against Native American tribes, primarily the Sioux. Thomas details the extreme hardships and horrific violence of these campaigns, participating in brutal massacres of indigenous communities. During these raids, they spare and adopt a young Native American girl named Winona, forming a makeshift family with her.
After their frontier service, they briefly try to live a domestic life, but the outbreak of the American Civil War forces Thomas and John back into military service, this time enlisting in the Union Army. They endure the terrible slaughter of major battles and the harrowing starvation of a prisoner-of-war camp (reminiscent of Andersonville). Through all the trauma and carnage, Thomas’s love for John Cole remains his anchor.
Following the war, Thomas, John, and Winona reunite and attempt to carve out a peaceful existence in Tennessee during the Reconstruction era. To escape detection and societal hostility, Thomas frequently adopts women’s clothing, living seamlessly as a woman and mother to Winona. Despite the relentless cycle of historical violence threatening their safety, the novel concludes with a fragile sense of hope and survival.
This novel stands out for its bold narrative contrast. It places a gentle, un-sensationalised queer romance at the absolute centre of a violent Western epic. Critics have praised Barry for how he balances horrific, graphic depictions of the American Civil War and the Indian Wars with the quiet, domestic sanctuary built by Thomas and John Cole. The book successfully injects the Western genre with gender fluidity and emotional vulnerability.
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ONE OF THE SUNDAY TIMES‘ ’25 BEST NOVELS OF THE 21ST CENTURY’
AN IRISH TIMES BEST IRISH BOOK OF THE 21ST CENTURY
Winner of the 2016 Costa Book of the Year
Winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2017
Winner of the Independent Bookshop Week Book Award 2017
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017
336 pages in Faber & Faber
First published 2016
ISBN-13 : 978-0571340224
Sebastian Barry