The Newer World

Days Without End #3

by Sebastian Barry

THE NEW INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER FROM THE AUTHOR OF DAYS WITHOUT END AND OLD GOD'S TIME

'A masterly work of historical witness and moral reckoning' OBSERVER

An immersive and unforgettable novel of one man's life in the aftermath of the American Civil War.

I knew as I made my way home that there was no home. All the old things . . . were gone forever.

Against the rapidly shifting landscape of post Civil War America, Tennyson Bouguereau - freed man, devoted brother, nascent singer, conflicted soldier and wanted man - journeys to find meaning and belonging. From the relative safety of home in Tennessee with his sister Rosalee, he is offered the possibility of a whole new life in Nashville, until a surprising trip to Victorian England changes everything.

Exquisitely rendered, and with a rich cast of characters, The Newer World is a lyrical, visceral novel about what it is to survive, and what might be lost along the way.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Literary Fiction, Irish Literature, Book Club, American Civil War

Audible Audio

First published September 10, 2026

About the author

Sebastian Barry is an Irish playwright, novelist and poet. He is noted for his dense literary writing style and is considered one of Ireland's finest writers

Barry's literary career began in poetry before he began writing plays and novels. In recent years his fiction writing has surpassed his work in the theatre in terms of success, having once been considered a playwright who wrote occasional novels.

He has twice been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for his novels A Long Long Way (2005) and The Secret Scripture (2008), the latter of which won the 2008 Costa Book of the Year and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. His 2011 novel On Canaan's Side was long-listed for the Booker. He won the Costa Book of the Year again - in 2017 for Days Without End.

Reviews

[Margo Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely delighted to have an ARC of 'The Newer World' 💖💖💖 Many thanks to the publisher & NetGalley.

This is a third book in the series that began with the outstanding 'Days Without End' which won the Costa Book of the Year and the Walter Scott Prize. 'The Newer World' is written from the perspective of Tennyson Bouguereau, who was born into slavery in Tennessee, reflecting on his life in old age ("You have to laugh at the sorrows of youth.") For a while, in the aftermath of the Civil War and freedom, he lived on a farm with Thomas McNulty (the narrator of the first book) and his partner John Cole, their adopted daughter Winona (the narrator of the second) and Tennyson's twin sister Rosalee. There is a sense of found family, a temporary idyll, to this set-up ("Any fool can ignore happy days, but I noted them") though the plot flings his life in unexpected directions. In a similar way to 'Days Without End', the narrative voice mingles lyricism, whimsy, playfulness and a kind of nostalgic glow, yet is embedded with the pain of historical violence and injustice.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Newer World takes the reader to western Tennessee after the Civil War. The south might have lost the world but the Butternuts aren’t giving in that easily. Tennyson was born a slave and is still young when he is set free. But as he says, “freed not the same as free”. After defending the ten acres he’s been given, he’s forced to leave the farm and his sister. Thanks to an understanding lawyer, he ends up in a school in Nashville which raises funds through its singing group, of which Tennyson becomes a member. But he and a friend quit the school and later join the army. I struggled at times to understand some of Tennyson’s decisions.
The book has an almost lyrical style to it, in contrast to the darkness of the story. The main theme is finding one’s identity in a world that wants no parts of you.
Barry does an excellent job of painting each scene, making characters, places and time easy to envision. The last part of the story, which takes place in the Southwest, felt especially realistic.
This is the third in a series but it worked fine as a stand-alone.
My thanks to Netgalley and a Viking Penguin for an advance copy of this book.

[Angela M · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Freed not the same as free.”

“ They wished to send us into a darkness where the only light would be the blossom of gunpowder in the blackness. To hang us up under the travelling moon. To be clear towards us in their hatred and contempt. The very sight of us a proof of crime.”

Tennyson Bouguereau, a freed, but not free man lives a gut wrenching and dark childhood with his sister Rosalee around the time of the civil war and the tumultuous time after the war, suffering loss imposed by the injustices of slavery. These horrible circumstances make him not just not free , but wanted . His escape to safety takes him to a school in Nashville where he learns about the depth of friendship and what it means to love a woman. From the divided state of Tennessee split in its allegiance to the North and South, to England, to New Mexico and South Dakota, Tennyson grows , but misses in his soul, not just his sister, but the farm that was home. His journey becomes one of survival, that he embraces with heart and guts and hope. Difficult to read, but Sebastian Barry delivers a more than likely true picture of the times through an unforgettable character.

It was a nice surprise to meet once again, beloved characters John Cole and Thomas McNulty from Days Without End and A Thousand Moons. Definitely recommended if you are a fan of those novels.


I received a copy of this book from Viking through NetGalley.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

We knew our worth. We could count our value. We seemed to stand in a new field of brightness. Great strangeness becoming clearer, vale by vale. Because, before they had gone up like a volcano, we had reached that audience. With what though? What in the wide earth was it? A sense that some power unknown might enter us in the singing of an old song, a torn thing we owned from long ago, like the dirty straw on our pallets, the few oft-used things, tin cup, prized needle, old working boots. All the objects of the old quarters that everyone remembered but never spoke of. Unless you were a Minnie, made free as a baby so never knowing such things–depending which version of her history she was telling you. We had given life to songs like those same half-remembered things, and found nesting in their poor meshes a little smiling god.

Shortlisted for the 2026 An Post Irish Book Awards - Eason Novel of The Year
 
This is Sebastian Barry’s 12th novel.  Of his previous 11 novels – no less than 5 have been at least Booker longlisted.  Only Rushdie (7), Atwood, Bainbridge, Coetzee, McEwan and Murdoch (all 6) beat this figure with Carey, Ishiguro, Mitchell and Trevor equalling it. First shortlisted for A Long Long Way (2005) and The Secret Scripture (2008) and then longlisted for On Canaan’s Side (2011), Days Without End (2017) and Old God’s Time (2023).  He is twice winner of the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction – “On Canaan’s Side” (2012) and “Days Without End” (2017) – which incidentally under the rules of that prize lead to a 7 year hiatus in being allowed to enter (now expired).  And also twice Winner of the Costa Prize – both times for Novel and Overall – for ”The Secret Scripture” (2008) – which also won the James Tait Memorial Prize - and “Days Without End” (2016).
 
The novel is effectively the third in a closely connected series of novels after “Days Without End” and “A Thousand Moons” – the first of which was narrated by Thomas McNulty, the second by the Lakotan Winona, and this by the freed man (and like Winona victim of a violent assault in the previous books) Tennyson Bouguereau.
 
Its first Section overlaps substantially with its predecessor – set on the small Magan farm in Tennessee around the Civil War.  The first half (of that section) gives Tennyson’s back story (as far as he knows it) and shows us something of the life on the farm pre Civil War and when he was still a slave (if under a relatively benevolent – by slaveholder terms – master in Mangan).  The second half has Winona, Thomas and John all coming to live with their ex-colleague Lige; and Tennyson and his sister Rosalee are freed; the lawyer Briscoe supports them all.  Bt the situation is difficult, exacerbated by Tennessee’s split loyalties during the war: the increasingly influential ex-rebel soldiers (referred to as “Butternuts”) resentful of the Mangan loyalties and still persecuting blacks and Indians regardless (in fact in deliberate spite) of Federal rulings – and we get a summarised history of events in “A Thousand Moons” – even the assault on Tennyson given little detail. It ends where we lose Tennyson in “A Thousand Moons” – Tennyson for his own safety taking a suggestion/offer from Briscoe to travel to Nashville to attend a black freedman college which also has a travelling musical group (where he might prosper with his knowledge of old slave field songs).
 
The second section starts in Nashville and the college where Tennyson learns both deportment/cleanliness (never needed or available on the farm), the classics (“The Odyssey” becomes a recurring theme in his thoughts from there), vocabulary/spelling (see below) and the courage to sing.  He also forms two close friendships – one with a fellow freedman and ex-soldier George, the other with Minnie (an occasionally sexual relationship when they can avoid the scrutiny of the fiercely religious principal of the college).  When they tour in America, and despite an almost transcendental opening number by Minnie, the audiences are determined to harass them pre performance and barrack them post performance - but when in contrast they tour England (and the invitation of a presumably anti-slavery-activist Duke) they are greeted warmly on arrival and with almost religious rapture when they perform.  But an incident with a missing valuable thimble and general fatigue (culminating in George suffering a permanent loss of his singing voice) forces them back to America where the general hostility of the Newer version of the New World resumes. George decides to rejoin the army and to the disappointment of Briscoe (and his sister) and the devastation of Minnie he decides to join George -  his choice against Minnie seemingly motivated by his fears to have children in America.
 
And the third section is largely based around their time in the army (after an almost five year period – albeit briefly covered in the novel - when he and George are basically alcoholic bums) including: a lengthy escort of a stagecoach which ends with a skirmish; a campaign to hunt down a renegade Apache Chief and his band in which Tennyson both loses George and realises he has become the equivalent of a slaver freedom-hunter; an involvement with the Lakota which includes being a near witness to the Wounded Creek massacre ……. Before the section ends with an emotional return to his sister and a reckoning with his past. 
 
Like both the previous two books the novel’s finale includes the innocent protagonist facing a biased trial – although this time (and perhaps in one of the vanishingly few instances of a positively changed world) Tennyson’s army funds (including George’s back earnings) allow him to simply pay a fine to avoid imprisonment to the dismay of his persecutors.

And as well as the pre/post Civil War setting and Western style of its two predecessors it is stylistically very similar.
 
The distinctive writing style with its beautifully poetic almost transcendent imagery contrasting with the often harsh conditions in which its characters live.  “Days Without End” was criticised by some readers for the apparent disconnect between the style and Thomas (as narrator)’s education and background – but similarly to with Winona in “A Thousand Moons” Barry (as though conscious of this criticism) explicitly explains Tennyson’s language (Winona taught from a book how to express herself graciously in English, Tennyson dedicating himself to learning obscure words).
 
The immediate first person approach – with a rejection of any form of omniscient narrator, so that we only really know the feelings of the respective narrators in each novel (Thomas, Winona,  Tennyson) and an outside view of others.  In “A Thousand Moons” I thought it was effective in showing how Thomas had misunderstood much about Winona (and Winona in turn about Thomas) – that effect seemed less clear to me here.
 
Tennyson’s deep bond with George while deep and heartfelt remains (I think) platonic – in contrast to the development of the bonds of Thomas/John and Winona/Peg (as a related aside there is also not the same idea from the first two of the narrator forced into a form of cross-dressing via expediency and employment)
 
This novel ends with Tennyson heading to Alaska for what we suspect might be the fourth volume of this enjoyable series, with perhaps John (who has travelled there with Thomas to try their hand at the gold rush) the narrator this time around. 
 
My thanks to Faber for an ARC via NetGalley and paper ARC
 

The heart. The heart pondering as good as the head. Rosalee. Love like that. My feeling for my two old soldiers, Thomas and John–and even Lige. Though now I was a reader of books I could see something amiss there. Many books talked of bondage. The Bible, the very book he had given me, was full of it too. Yes. But there was also Winona, an innocent person. My dealings with her, the stray talking, the time spent shooting the breeze. Her care for me. The long days of work, of course, but I had been able for it, I had had the arms, the strong neck–the heart for it. Yes. My mother. All on that small farm outside Paris, somewhere that was nowhere, in Henry County, of no account. Its people washed up there by accident–even old Luther. That turmoil of longing was in my heart because where those people abided was where I had belonged. And all that was lost and I knew as I made my way home that there was no home. All the old things, my days in the world, even the eyes I had seen them with, were gone for ever. I knew it. I missed it all with an illness that had no cure. There was no bottle of miraculous cure-all I saw advertised in the Nashville newspaper. Poor Odysseus. Who was a noble king and the son of a god and I was not like that, but I was like him in this one hard thing. The longing. The sickness of returning home. My sister. Not just the mirror of my heart but maybe the maker too. On our crazy walk to kill the killer of our mother. Through the dark trees. Like little cougars in the dark underwood. She so brave, so certain. Me trembling. My sister Rosalee. Do you understand? More important to me far than life itself, even than this new life in Nashville, where George and Minnie were, and the silly reverend. The lawyer Briscoe sundered me from my home place so he could save my life. But my life was not so important really. The bonds that bound us to others were life more truly. Without them, I hardly knew what I was. .

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Newer World is another of Sebastian Barry's forays into post civil war America. This time we are in the company of newly freed slave, Tennyson Bougereau.

Tennyson and twin sister, Rosalee live a hard life as tenant farmers of the man who freed them but the post-civil war world is still filled with uncertainty and soon Tennyson finds himself fleeing to Nashville where he joins a choir and his world opens into something totally unexpected. But will this be Tennyson's final destination or will the vagaries of life mean more changes for our protagonist.

I have been a big fan of Barry's work since A Long Long Way but I much prefer the novels based in Ireland to the American ones. A Newer World was, however, on the whole, very enjoyable despite the difficult subject matter. Tennyson and Rosalee are likeable characters and the plot trots along at a good pace.

There are some upsetting subjects in the book including slavery, war, civil rights injustice, lynchings, rape and murder. All are dealt with sensitively.

I would definitely recommend this novel. You don't need to have read any of the other American novels although Thomas McNulty and John Cole do make appearances.

Thank you to Netgalley and Faber & Faber for the digital review copy.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely writing and an interesting story made for an enjoyable reading experience. My favourite passage which prompted several re-reads:

“Such are you given now and then, if rarely, your mind clears and there is a moment of sunlit clarity, you may go forward, you may exist, you are a loved soul, you are a person of measured value just like the testament promises. It’s not that testament written long ago but a fresh one with its struggling stories and wild news for this present and mysterious day. Your own private piece of covered glass.”

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Newer World Sebastian Barry returns to the characters who first appeared in Days Without End, which won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2017, and its sequel, A Thousand Moons.

Days Without End told the story of Thomas McNulty and John Cole, whilst A Thousand Moons continued their story but from the point of view of Winona, the orphaned Indian girl they adopted. Our narrator in this book is the wonderfully named Tennyson Bouguereau, a freed man living with his twin sister Rosalee on a small Tennessee farm owned by Lige Magan. Also living there now are Thomas and John, who both served with Lige in the army, and their daughter Winona. Although The Newer World can be read as a standalone it does overlap with events in the earlier books. Personally, I found myself wishing I’d had time to reread the first two books before reading this one to refresh my memory about how they intersect.

In Tennyson Bouguereau, the author has once again created a distinctive and unforgettable narrative voice. As he sets out to recount the story of his life, he warns, ‘I’m not going to tell you just a pretty story. I will give you the actual matters.’ So we learn of his tragic family history, the cruelty endured by enslaved people and that being freed doesn’t bring an end to hatred, bigotry and violence. That deference remains a way to divert attention from yourself, although even that is not necessarily a guarantee of safety, as he discovers.

Following the outcome of a violent attack on the farm, Tennyson is forced to flee for his life. He receives a lifeline from an enlightened lawyer in the form of a place at a college for black freedmen and women in Nashville. There he meets George, a fellow student and ex-soldier who takes Tennyson under his wing. He also meets a young woman, Minnie, who captures his heart. As members of the college’s choir Tennyson, George and Minnie travel the country performing the songs sung in the fields by slaves. Eventually the choir travels to England where audiences greet their performances with acclaim rather than the hostility they experience in America.

‘Then noise, noise never heard before, not just like that, those held-in lungs now filled again with air, everywhere arms were raised, human persons embracing, now one hat thrown into the air, now a hundred, now a thousand, a stampede of cries, the hats turning in the half-darkness and seeming to float in those weird new seconds without clocks, such shouts thrown upward after them, wild sparks of freedom, a brimming fire of joy.’

Tennyson’s friendship with George will last for decades and inform many of Tennyson’s life choices. Together they share many experiences, both good and bad.

Tennyson’s life is one shaped by external events which on many occasions leave him feeling adrift. Rosalee’s letters are infrequent and because of his itinerant lifestyle he often learns of events long after they have taken place. He aches to return to the farm and to Rosalee, but is fearful of the consequences. Even if he does make it back what will he find? In fact, is there such a thing as ‘home’ for him anymore?

I was completely absorbed by Tennyson’s story. I really loved the sense of a man looking back on his life and reflecting on both the good and the bad points with insight and a degree of equanimity.

‘No one admires an old man – an old man is for the muckheap. But, granting that, there isn’t a living child that will not be old by and by. It’s the by and by that confounds you, how quick that comes. And all the things that bothered you and hampered your gait when you were young, they begin to seem like vanished riches. […] We have got our sole legend, our passage through, our mark we left on the path, where we stubbed our toes, where we broke things off. So I guess that’s old man’s riches, what he has got anyhow.’

It’s possible The Newer World is a finale to the trilogy and, if so, it’s a fitting one that has immersed the reader in the lives of very different characters. However, there’s enough in the final pages to make me think the story needn’t necessarily end here.

[Andrew Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set largely in the aftermath of the American Civil War, I found that it took me a while to adapt to the style of this account of an uneducated person of colour narrating his life story. But after a while, I found that it felt homely, unfiltered, and authentic. It’s definitely grim in places – lots of places – depicting the struggle to find work and even to obtain sufficient food to survive. A world in which grudges are held over from the war and rough justice is widely dispensed.

Set in the Deep South - West Tennessee and Nashville – we follow the struggles of a farm worker who is forced to leave his family and friends to find work and relative safety. There are grim descriptions of the terrible treatment he receives pretty much everywhere he goes. He’s keen one day to return to his home and what remains of his family and close friends. But instead he make some decisions that seem inexplicable. Having achieved at least a level of stability he suddenly descends into a five-year alcohol ‘bender’. Later, having fallen in love, he strangely chooses to join the army. This to be with and support a friend, just as the promise of a life with the woman he’s in love with beckons.

It’s a sad, downbeat tale that I found affecting but sometimes difficult to make sense of.

[Ben Dutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Newer World by Sebastian Barry, is set in the aftermath of the American Civil War, a world Barry visited last in his fantastic Days Without End from 2016. A decade later, and a few years later novelistically, The Newer World is the story of Tennyson Bouguereau and characters from that earlier novel (though reading the first novel is not a prerequisite for enjoying this one).

Barry once again dazzles utterly, with his prose full of beauty and precision. His characterisation of Bouguereau is spot-on, and you are pulled through this well-crafted history easily. There are lines here you pause to re-read.

The Newer World then is another beautiful, brilliant novel by Barry, and if you loved Days Without End then you really must read this.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

”You don’t need the truth to make a bible.”

”Every war is never-ending and then it ends. It ends, but there are always a few shuddering last ‘things’ before it does.”

”It was just me and Rosalee then, with three hundred acres. And the silence in the trees. And the deer coming right into the home fields because they thought we were gone. And the forest echoing only with owls and whippoorwills. And the feeling that time had stopped. The moon confused. The sun astounded.”

Sebastian Barry has been gifting us novels over five decades. Barry writes beautiful sentences, and even better paragraphs. The Newer World is Barry’s twelfth novel, written with his characteristic linguistic specificity and emotional depth.

Barry places The Newer World in the nineteenth century United States, a time and place he’s written about before in Days Without End, which brings Thomas McNulty to Canada and then the United States, and introduces McNulty to John Cole, and in A Thousand Moons, which adds Winona, an orphaned Lakota girl, to the McNulty-Cole family. In The Newer World, Barry adds Tennyson and Rosalee Bouguereau, enslaved and then freed African Americans, and brings them together with McNulty, Cole, and their daughter Winona.

The Newer World focuses most on Tennyson, writing in about 1900 when he was about sixty years old and reminiscing on his roughly first forty years. It can be viewed as a Bildungsroman tracing Tennyson’s life from his birth in about 1840 in Paris, Tennessee, through his childhood, his emancipation, his move to Nashville for a choir school, his travels to England with the school choir, his dissolute years after returning to Nashville with his friend Pompey Jorgensen (AKA George), his years in the army with George, his return to Paris to visit Rosalee, and finally his departure for Alaska to join Thomas McNulty and John and Winona Cole.

Barry’s at his best in describing the nuances of human love. In The Newer World, we feel Tennyson’s love for Minnie as well as the ambiguities of his equally strong love for George, both of whom he met in the Nashville choir and travelled with for their choir’s tour in England.

”I was anxious to hear back from Minnie. I was thinking, you have lost your George and now like a cringing coward you are turning back to the girl you spurned. How had I left her if not scalded and sore? She had known my feelings. I had known hers. All that broken insisting and choosing I had done at the time seemed a kind of folly now. I was shaking my head at myself.
“I didn’t even know what it was George had been to me. I didn’t even know that. I hadn’t ever even told him those long reminiscences that lovers sometimes do. Of course I had gradually learned his history, in little parts, here and there.
“It hadn’t been any of that.
“It had been that when I clapped eyes on him I felt glad. And that this coyote life was worth the effort. More than worth it. He made life seem sometimes joyous and particular and good, and opening my eyes in the morning I was oftentimes like a mere child, looking forward not just to the day, but to him. He was always just a few inches away, likely snoring. Him just being there, that was it. And now he was not there. And never again.
“God might well damn me for being a coward, I thought.”

Barry portrays nineteenth century America with subtlety, showing us the casual cruelty of the pre- and post-Civil War South to African Americans and outsiders, as well as the kindnesses of a few whites. Sebastian Barry is a great chronicler of the Irish diaspora and now of the diaspora of freed African Americans after the Civil War, as he demonstrates again in The Newer World. He wastes no words, sentences, or paragraphs in telling us his story about the lives of Tennyson and Rosalee Bouguereau and Tennyson’s journeys. Barry’s tale of cross-racial friendship and partnership may seem almost naive—an America that we want to recall but never had.

Sebastian Barry never disappoints. Among Barry’s recent novels, The Newer World doesn’t land quite as squarely as Old God’s Time. But a Sebastian Barry novel always provides the reader with deeply felt emotion and excitement, as does The Newer World. I hope that Barry expands his American trilogy by adding an additional novel that takes us along on Tennyson’s trip to Alaska and his life in Fortymile with Thomas, John, and Winona.

4.5 stars

I would like to thank NetGalley and Viking for providing me with an advanced reader’s copy of this fine novel.

[Phyllis · Rating 4 out of 5]

How can an Irishman write so well from the perspective of a man born into slavery in 1848(ish) in Tennessee?

[Kathleen Leslie O'Toole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went to this book eagerly as I am a big fan of Barry’s work. The Newer World is an ambitious novel set in the aftermath of the American Civil War. The plot moves across a wide range of settings and circumstances, capturing a country still struggling with change and violence. Aptly titled, it suggests that while newer, a lot remains unchanged.
At times, however, the plot seems almost incredible, stretching the bounds of plausibility as Barry moves between a large cast of characters, settings and an equally broad sweep of events.. There is so much ground to cover that we do not always get as close to the narrator as we might like, and some of the emotional intimacy with main characters, found in Barry’s earlier work, is consequently missing.
Readers familiar with Barry, will recognise some of the characters from his earlier works, as they meet protagonist , Tennyson , but the interactions lack depth. Ultimately, it is the prose that carries the novel—even when the story itself asks us to believe rather more than we might naturally.. Thanks to Fabre and Fabre and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read.

[Jonathan Pool · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn just two years ago, for the first, and only, time (inspired by Percival Everrett’s James .) As I read this latest Sebastian Barry, the (lovely, ever tolerant) Tennyson, reminded me so much of Jim.
That’s not so say that Sebastian Barry doesn’t write a very heartfelt novel, and one that’s easy to tune into if you prefer “likeable” characters. Its just that I found it derivative rather than original.

The sense that I had been here before, and that this latest Barry was something of a comfort read, (despite the bigotry of the Confederates in the American Civil War), was further confirmed by the re-appearance of three characters from Barry’s previous American-setting novels Days Without End and A Thousand Moons. I didn’t think the references to Thomas McNulty, John Cole, or Winona, added anything to this third part, similarly set between 1860-1890.

I always like novels in which the main relationships surprise me. Barry doesn’t take the obvious route. Tennyson (Bourgeureau) and Minnie continues to surprise and intrigue. Tennyson and George are similarly engaging. At a time of great human violence there is a sympathetic voice to offset the brutishness. Briscoe and Petrie, reflecting the division in America in the late c.19th as the battle, emotionally and physically, was fought between modernisers and dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists (for which read, soulless fanatics).

After I finished the book I read through some of the newspaper reviews. Barry achieved something that few other writers have managed in my experience. Every single review chose the same quotation from the book “Freed not the same as free”. That was my favourite quotation, too.

An enjoyable read but not sufficiently original to stay long in the memory. Definitely recommendable.

[KLacroix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good story by a master wordsmith and storyteller. Tennyson, the freed slave who is the main character and narrator, is wonderfully crafted and developed. He’s unforgettable. Of course, the book confronts the deep-seated historical and social issues of 19th-century America. Barry writes with an agenda, but he never loses sight of the story or his characters.

This is the third of a loosely connected trilogy, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there isn’t a fourth coming down the road. The door is wide open for that.

This American series is great, but I do wish Barry would take us back to the Dunne family in Ireland and let the McNulty clan rest for a while. Barry reminds me of Strout: he builds worlds around characters he simply won’t let go of.

[Margaret Cheng · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Sebastian Barry. Old God's Time and Days Without End are two of my favourite books. The Newer World is far from his usual standard. It feels like a continuation simply for the sake of getting another book out there. The detail is poor and the characterisation worse. Huge swathes of time are passed over with no story or scant reasoning such as (I'm paraphrasing) 'we decided just to do this for a few years'. Worst is the reasoning behind Tennyson going off with George and leaving Minnie behind. And the ending is very poor. This is not the Sebastian Barry we know. Extremely disappointing!

[Robert Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find it remarkable that Sebastian Barry can authentically create a world so unlike his own. A prodigious talent. I also loved being reacquainted with Thomas McNulty, John Cole and Winona, characters from Days without End.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Barry,except for his American trilogy, and sadly, this one´s no exception. There´s his stunning prose,a joy to read...and not much else, which is weird, because a lot is "happening". But... It happens, and feels detached:the violence,the reflections on freedom,nature, singing, etc. The protagonist doesn´t sound right;too verbose,with language that doesn´t suit who he is. This will surely have a follow up, which I won´t read.
Hope Barry gets back to Ireland soon.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A propulsive yarn narrated by freedman Tennyson Bouguereau. My introduction to the American sequence of novels by one of my favourite authors. I now need to play catch up and read Days Without End and A Thousand Moons.

[Lisa Goodmurphy · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

Set in the United States in the 19th century, this is the story of Tennyson Bouguereau, a Black man born into slavery who has recently been freed. The story begins with Tennyson living on a farm in rural Tennessee with his twin sister Rosalee and a few others. Following the Civil War, Confederate sympathizers take control of his region of the state and Tennyson flees to Nashville to attend a recently established religious school for Freedmen. While there, he joins a choir and tours the U.S. and abroad, develops a friendship with another choir member named George, and falls in love with a woman named Minnie. In the final part of the book, Tennyson and George join the army and are sent to the American West to fight the Apaches.

The Newer World is a sweeping narrative of a formerly enslaved man telling the story of his life over the course of several decades following the Civil War in the U.S. The Confederacy lost the war and those who were enslaved are free, however, the way they are treated in the South doesn't change much. In beautiful, lyrical prose, Tennyson narrates the story of his personal hardships which mirrors the collective story of racism, violence and trauma endured by Black Americans in the American South before, during and after the Civil War.

This is the first book that I have read by Sebastian Barry and I hadn't realized that it is the third in a historical fiction trilogy set in the United States. I thought it was fine as a standalone but I understand that much of the first quarter of the book is a quick summation of events of the previous two books where Tennyson was a minor character and it might have been better to have read them first.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have not seen nearly enough about Sebastian Barry, and his coming release, THE NEWER WORLD, graciously #gifted to me by @blackstonepublishing & @netgalley coming out November 17th!

Set in the final days of the Civil War and the following years, this story follows a man named Tennyson Bouguereau who was born in bondage and must forge his own path in freedom.

The audio is narrated by Dion Graham who gives a beautiful voice to Tennyson who must choose between family, friendship, and love as those paths diverge. His choices feel right to him in the moment, but finding his footing proves to be harder and the options not really open.

The storytelling is rich and lyrical giving this novel a beauty beyond the darkness Tennyson sees and experiences.

I loved this one and was bereft when it ended. I want so much more for Tennyson.

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I discovered Sebastian Barry a few years ago, he has become perhaps my most reliable author. I consider his prose unmatched, and his characters and their stories seem to speak directly to me through that luminous prose. (This is now my 10th novel of his.) In this one we follow the adventures of a Black man from west Tennessee from about 1840 to about 1890. Always in search of freedom, he is an enslaved man, then a sharecropper, then a Fisk University student and one of the famed Fisk Jubilee Singers, then a soldier in the Southwest and in the Dakotas, where he witnesses what seems to be the Wounded Knee Massacre, all narrated in a marvelous dreamy, if hardened, first-person voice.

[Rob Hamer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part 1 is excellent . Nashville and the army not so much. Plot lacks plausibility at some points. A bit of a step up from an airport novel but not by much.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barry's last novel was the extraordinary Old God's Time, set in Ireland with its theme of abuse by priests and the suppression and recall of memory. Now he returns to America, where he set two previous novels about Thomas McNulty and John Cole and their adoption of the Native American girl, Winona. These characters appear again in The Newer World, but only at the story's margin. The Newer World can be read as a stand alone.

The narrator is Tennyson, who looks back on his life in the deep south. His parents, both slaves, are murdered but he and his twin sister Rosalie remain on the farm, where they eventually are given their freedom after the end of the Civil War. But attitudes in the South have not changed - they are 'freed but not free'. Tennyson is forced to flee and finds himself (through the help of a white lawyer) in a school that not only educates young black men and women but supports the singing of their slave songs. This section of the book is based on the true story of Fisk Jubilee Singers who, like Tennyson in the story, travelled to Britain to perform to audiences including the British nobility. A later section of the novel has Tennyson enlisted in the army that chases down and massacre Native American tribes, as did McNulty and Cole in an earlier novel. I wondered if I wanted to continue the novel at that point, but Barry is able to show how the tormented can become the tormentors but still, somehow, retain their humanity. His prose - like the stories he tells - can be both poetic and brutal.

This book could be considered historical fiction but it is so much more. Barry's brilliance lies in telling the stories of the people that history overlooks. A girl incarcerated in an asylum, a Native American girl torn from her people or a young Irishman fleeing the effects of the famine - Barry gives them voice in his body of work. In my view, there are deep truths in his work that non-fiction cannot match. This novel disturbed me, moved me, appalled me - and inspired me.

[Paromita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some fantastic bits of writing but it fizzled out for me in the second half. The book was definitely very good but I've come to expect a certain level of emotional depth from Barry's works and I found it slightly lacking in that aspect after a certain point (George's untimely death to be specific).

One needn't have read the previous two books to read this one, it works perfectly well as a standalone novel. But readers who have read the previous installments will see some characters featured in this one.

I'm not sure if this is the conclusion of the series - it could go either way from the way Barry leaves things in this book.

I'll end with some beautifully written excerpts:

"This is how you learn right and wrong when you are a little person. You discern things. You discern evil and you discern goodness. And anyway, right or wrong, letters and numbers or no, soon the whole storm of work claimed you, more and more, and you began to disappear into that, and you woke tired at daybreak and went to your pallet like the dead as dark took the earth. There was no education in such brute repetition. It was a darkness that could rub you out like the clouds do the wavering moon."

"Are best days forgotten days?
Who is that God that floats high above all things? Does he have a thousand eyes? Why does he bother himself?
The spider lives in his dark corner, all his days. The bright sparrow comes in from the sunlight and picks him from his web."

[Megan May · Rating 1.5 out of 5]

The Newer World is a standalone novel set in the world of Sebastian Barry's previous two books, Days Without End and A Thousand Moons. It tells the story of Tennyson Bouguereau, a formerly enslaved man, in the aftermath of the Civil War.

The Newer World features Barry's trademark lyrical prose. The the prose paired with the narrator's performance is unmatched. Unfortunately, that is the extent of my praise for the book. I found it difficult to pay attention as the plot meandered through Tennyson's life. Scenes that had the potential to build suspense and interest were left unexplored (a criticism I also had for Days Without End), while inconsequential scenes were detailed at length. Furthermore, I felt Barry missed a crucial opportunity to explore the lasting and pervasive impact of slavery. While bad things happen to Tennyson as a Black man in the post–Civil War South, readers in 2026 should be well aware of the blatant horrors faced by African Americans during this era. This was an opportunity for Barry to dig deeper and put a magnifying glass on the impact of systemic racism on our society. Instead, he played it safe, resting on his laurels with beautiful prose and churning out tepid historical fiction to capitalize on the painful history of African Americans.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for this advance listening copy in exchange for a review.
I do not have any experience with this author and only noticed after I received it that it says 3rd in a series. I don’t believe it was necessary to read the first two as the author did a fine job of establishing (or reestablishing?) the characters.
The book is just so beautifully written. Before I finished I recommended it to a patron who loves this lyrical style and character driven plot.
The narrator was the perfect choice. If I closed my eyes I would think I was sitting at a campfire listening to an old friend recounting their story. It felt like a play which made me feel like this could be a Broadway play. I could’ve listened longer. Just beautifully done.
4 stars

[Pat · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

This novel, the third in a triology, centers around Tennyson Bouguereau who is a previously enslaved man in western Tennessee. He and his twin sister, Rosalee, were freed after the Civil War. Their lives are difficult, but Tennyson is eventually recognized for his singing and sent to a school in Nashville where he observes the lasting devastation of the war. After joining the army, he is sent to army camps around the United States, continuing to observe the war's impact. Sebastian Barry is a master storyteller, evoking images of Tennyson from his early years and his ongoing journey through a country deeply affected by the Civil War.

[Katie Steele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful storytelling, a sweeping journey where you feel safely in the arms of the author to take you to his post US civil war world where it seems the benefits of emancipation remain largely elusive. Like the other books in this series hope and self improvement are even if briefly allowed to coexist with horrible prejudice and violence. It’s an interesting perspective from an Irish author paralleling so much of the Irish story too. Feels like we will be in Alaska for the next instalment and I’d look forward to that!

[Jayne Southern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do not let the even-tempered and gently explored life of Tennyson Bouguereau beguile you into forgetting that ‘freed’ is not the same as ‘free’. Exquisitely observed by Sebastian Barry, Tennyson’s trials in terms of poverty, unremitting racialism and fears for his family are laid bare pre- and post-Civil War in the States.
A caring lawyer takes Tennyson under his wing and sends him to a choir school, where his singing talent takes him to England – where he is hosted in a stately home and treated with regard and respect. The return to the USA must have been so hard.
A profound friendship with a fellow choir member leads him to sign up for the Army, and more hardships.
Evocative, emotive, humorous, Tennyson’s journey is hopeful and visceral and compassionate and unforgettable.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I'm going to resist these half and quarter stars. We'll see how long that lasts I guess.

This is the worst book in this series by a good bit, but Days Without End & A Thousand Moons are basically just perfect. I'm really happy to revisit these meditations on love, though, this weekend especially. Great love is just such a special thing. Why do we do all of this? Well, you know, we do it for love. I hope that's enough. Should be, should be.