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A Thousand Moons

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A Thousand Moons

By: Sebastian Barry
Narrated by: Kyla Garcia
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About this listen

Even when you come out of bloodshed and disaster in the end you have got to learn to live.

From the Costa Book of the Year-winning author of Days Without End.

Winona is a young Lakota orphan adopted by former soldiers Thomas McNulty and John Cole. Living with Thomas and John on the farm they work in 1870s Tennessee, she is educated and loved, forging a life for herself beyond the violence and dispossession of her past. But the fragile harmony of her unlikely family unit, in the aftermath of the Civil War, is soon threatened by a further traumatic event, one which Winona struggles to confront, let alone understand. Told in Sebastian Barry's rare and masterly prose, A Thousand Moons is a powerful, moving study of one woman's journey, of her determination to write her own future and of the enduring human capacity for love.

©2018 Sebastian Barry (P)2020 W. F. Howes Ltd Contemporary Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction

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Critic reviews

“Nobody writes like, nobody takes lyrical risks like, nobody pushes the language, and the heart, and the two together, quite like Sebastian Barry does.” (Ali Smith)

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Excellent story, beautifully read. I felt engaged the whole way through. To get the most out of this book you need to read the previous novel first: Days Without End.

Excellent book

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The book is wonderful, almost as good as the first. However, there is a particular branch of the story that I could see coming a mile off. It seemed too cliché though. But he did it and for me it spoilt it.

Trying not to ruin the story.

Unnecessary

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Sebastian Barry won many plaudits and prizes for the prequel to his novel, Days Without End. So A Thousand Moons had a lot to live up to and I think it did.

Essentially, the story continues the tale of Winona, a young Native American girl, who has been adopted by two former soldiers John Cole (also a Native American) and Thomas McNulty, an Irish-born man who occasionally likes to don a dress. The story takes place in post-Civil War Tennessee where the family live and work on a farm alongside former slaves who are their friends.
The extended family face prejudice, inequality of treatment and open racism; but Winona is educated and loved and feels safe and protected within her unusual family.

So when a local white man comes a-courting Winona, you just know there is going to be trouble. One of the slaves is attacked and injured by local renegades and Winona is sexually assaulted by an unknown assailant. She believes her sweetheart may have been involved but he denies all knowledge of the attack. She struggles to come to terms with her experiences and with the casual indifference of local law enforcement officers. To the local people she is considered to be clever but overall she is just another 'wild savage' and someone with no legal rights. When her former sweetheart is found dead, suspicion falls on Winona and she is tried for murder.

On the face of it A Thousand Moons seems to be a quiet, simple story; that is until it explodes into a shock of discovery that catches the reader (at least this one) by surprise. The build up to the revelation of the culprit of the killer and of the perpetrator of the assault on Winona is a masterclass of controlled writing and leaves one with a feeling of 'there were so many clues in the story, why did I not see that?' Excellent, excellent writing and it ensures that this is a pleasing sequel to Days Without End.

My only small criticism is the narration. The Tennessee drawl was a bit slow and irritated me at times; but it grew on me. I'm sure other people will find it perfectly fine.

Beautiful writing.

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An absolute delight, I was unsure at first about the narrator but it was glorious.

Epic and beautiful

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This is the follow up to the excellent 'Days Without End' and it has some of the grit and beauty of that novel without, perhaps, the sweeping majesty. I certainly recommend the book and found the perspective of the native Indian narrator to be compelling. I would have just liked more of John and Thomas, although I appreciate that this was Winona's story. I look forward to the next intstalment.

Lyrical and Brutal

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a good narrator makes a good book better and this was a tour destination force,

superb narrator

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I really, *really* enjoyed 'Days Without End' (the first novel in this sequence), but this just doesn't hit the mark. The authenticity and originality of the narrative voice of the first book just isn't matched in the sequel, and the characters fail to spring to life. Maybe my expectations were too high precisely because the first was just so wonderful, but without by any means being bad, this is just... underwhelming.

Not of the standard of 'Days Without End'

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What an extraordinary narration....she made the book come to life for me! Enjoyed it immensely

Wonderful sense of place

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Gorgeous writing, captivating and exquisitely crafted.
Enjoyable narration, well suited to plot and characters.
Recommended.

Beautiful sequel to 'Days Without End

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I found this 2nd novel in the series to be a pail shadow of the first.

Disappointing!

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