The Heart in Winter

Author: Barry, Kevin

Historical fiction

Published on 24 April 2025 by Canongate Books in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 224 pages
197 x 128 x 12 | 164g

THE SUNDAY TIMES HISTORICAL NOVEL OF THE YEARTHE INSTANT IRISH TIMES BESTSELLERPICKED 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 ECONOMISTAN i-PAPER AND SUNDAY TIMES BOOK TO READ THIS SUMMERSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 WALTER SCOTT PRIZE'An absolute belter of a book' ANNE ENRIGHTHe 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 . . .