The Newer World

Days Without End #3

by Sebastian Barry

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
TWICE WINNER OF THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR

'A masterly work of historical witness and moral reckoning.' OBSERVER, Fiction to look out for in '26

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 this rapidly shifting landscape, 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, American Civil War, Civil War

Hardcover

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.

[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.

[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.

 
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. .

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.

[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.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've read and loved 'Days Without End' and 'A Thousand Moons,' Sebastian Barry's loosely-connected novels set during the American Civil war, don't miss 'The Newer World.' What is it like to live in the aftermath of war in the vacuum between survival, death, atrocities, hatred and returning home? Where does the poison of war linger?
Beautifully, and at times hauntingly-written, 'The Newer World' is the story of Tennessee man Tennyson Bouguereau, freed man, farmer, singer, brother and soldier. Tennyson has always sung, the songs of the field, the songs of his mother, the songs of the slaves. Sponsored by a local lawyer he is given the chance for a new life and goes to Nashville to join a choir of freed men. This is about more than singing, it is about learning to live free in the world. The college helps him to leave behind the ways of a farmhand and teaches him to read, write, sing, to keep himself and his clothes clean. And there he meets a woman to love, Minnie, and a best friend, George.
This is a story that skips across continents and American states but also has the time to watch time pass slowly, to see the sun rise and set again. After the choir's trip to England where they sing for the great, the good and the common people, and are welcomed by all, they return to Nashville. In love with Minnie, Tennyson is faced with an impossible to decision; to choose between his love, and his friend.
When Tennyson follows George into the army they are sent to New Mexico to fight the Apache, a people Tennyson knows are trying to hold onto their own lands against the might of Washington. Another suppsedly free people still hobbled and constrained as his people are. The leader of the army's Seminole scouts is an two-armed Indian called One-Arm Charlie who 'had a strong look of the Bouguereaus.' Despite Tennyson's attempts to engage Charlie in conversation, he fails. 'Funny how the slant of a body, just even a way of standing, how a person walked, beckoned me to friendship. But it was no go without a bit of language.'
Universal themes are explored and Tennyson's first person narrative is addictive as he faces some of life's biggest problems. The pages turn easily even when Tennyson is considering nothing more than the blowing of the wind or the hooves of his horse Balius. Having studied Greek in Nashville, he considers the parallels between his own journey and that of Odysseus returning home, and vows he will also 'strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.’ Tennyson is a freed slave, but is he truly a free man? As he travels to Nashville at the urging of Lawyer Briscoe, crosses the ocean with the choir and joins the army with George, he carries with him the weighty hopes, debts and expectations of others; but what of his own wishes and dreams?
America after the Civil War is not a new world, it is a world newer than the pre-war one but ridden with many of the same divisions, prejudices and hatred and a few new ones. The newly freed men and women must find their way to live in this uncertain country and find love, comradeship, opportunity and forgiveness.
These three novels are a wonder, a must-read, and Tennyson is a character to fall in love with. Barry's writing is exquisite, his plotting light-handed, the emotions tense.
Please note that although 'The Newer World' can be read as a standalone novel, its setting, themes and characters - including Thomas McNulty, John Cole and Winona - are intertwined with 'Days Without End' and 'A Thousand Moons.'
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-revie...

[Mairead Hearne (swirlandthread.com) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Newer World by Sebastian Barry publishes September 10th with Faber & Faber and is described as ‘an immersive and unforgettable novel of one man’s life in the aftermath of the American Civil War’.

There are currently a few active discussions surrounding The Newer World and the fact that Irish writer Sebastian Barry has chosen to write from the viewpoint of a Black American slave. Obviously I cannot attest to the authenticity of this world he creates but what I can say is that it is a most striking and poignant piece of work. Having previously read Days Without End and A Thousand Moons, the first two books in this series featuring Thomas McNulty and John Cole, I was enthusiastic to continue my reading of this unsettled period, but this time through the eyes of Tennyson Bouguereau, an acquaintance of McNulty and Cole.

Now an older man, Tennyson looks back at his life and all he has witnessed. He has clarity with some of his memories and other periods of time seem more of a blur to him so he passes over them more swiftly. As a young boy he recalls a father he never knew, the tragic loss of his mother and the harrowing scenes of what he witnessed when his beloved sister Rosalee was brutally assaulted. As freed slaves, the Bouguereau children lived on a Lige Magan’s farm alongside McNulty, Cole and Cole’s adopted daughter Winona, a young Lakota Indian. This rather eclectic gathering lived harmoniously following the civil war but the legacy of those tumultuous times lingered at a more local level, leaving Tennyson and Rosalee very exposed.

After a particular incident, Tennyson travels to Nashville, with assistance, in order to start a new life for himself. He is reticent to leave Rosalee and the rest of his unorthodox family behind, but with no real choice, he joins a bible group of singers, a choir, where he uses his voice to make a living. ‘It seemed like we had restored to the cold earth her natural sense of faith. Everyone said we were God’s messengers.’ Polished up and a little more educated, Tennyson feels a distance forming between his roots and what he has now become. He is unsure of who he is, confused about where his future will be and where he will spend it.

He joins the army, with his best friend George. He refers to the famous Lakota Ghost Dance and The Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, where approximately 300 men, women and children of the Lakota tribe were barbarically murdered, ‘the day the end of the world came quicker than I thought.’

Following the army, Tennyson continues his journey through life. This stunning account encourages the reader to almost believe that they have been invited to a private viewing of the personal diary of a witness to these extraordinary times. If you have previously read Sebastian Barry’s work you will have high expectations when you pick up a copy of The Newer World and it doesn’t disappoint. In a recent article in The Times, Sebastian Barry mentioned how he just couldn’t let this story go and, as a fan, I am very pleased that he made that choice. It seems like a perfect finale to this series, wrapping up this turbulent period in American history.

The Newer World is an unflinching and profound novel, one that leaves a lingering sense of being witness to something so much bigger that one can ever truly comprehend. It is a sweeping and sombre tale, a fitting conclusion to this remarkable trilogy.

[Bhaskar Thakuria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sebastian Barry's latest work of fiction takes the sanguine fields of the American Civil War as centrestage and asks the ever omnipotent question of the expectation one sets forth from one's life. It is the third book in the installment Days Without End, the previous two books in the series being Days Without End and A Thousand Moons, and can be very well read on its own without prior introduction to the first two books in the series.

There is a poetic semblance of the absolute in the works of Sebastian Barry that is hard to ignore. Being a former laureate of Irish letters, he is one of the most lyrical amongst the modern crop of Irish novelists and is particularly known for the density of his prose. What stands out in this work, as in most of his other works of fiction, is his ability to eke out a character through his actions in a most graphic manner. The descriptions of military life and that of the actions in the battlefield in this work are well worth remembering and harks back to the style of the Russian masters like Turgenev and Chekhov. Here is one description that marked my attention:

.......The woman running, Johnson’s grey mount plunging through the sand after her, over to our left, the Apaches coming in faster now, a hundred yards beyond the stranded coach, sensing chaos, the twelve or so men of the section there firing, me pulling up my Spencer as I tore along the trail, George with his pistol waving, our horses storming, the passengers rushing hither and thither against all orders, should we run, should we stay, and now the sergeant’s voice was heard clearly, in the midst of his soldiers, issuing his orders in plain language, and just as we reached our boys, and threw ourselves down from the horses, seven of our men leaped to their feet as bidden and started to run across the sand towards the Indians, tearing away from us as if they couldn’t join with the enemy quick enough........

In essence, this is a brilliant new work of fiction from this Irish master that asks the very question whose answer has eluded countless philosophers and writers from then and now. How strange and obscure are the goals and values we set before us in our entire lives, and what is lost to us forever in our journey to seek for the absolute?

I heard the high-born horses whinnying against the jolts and knocks of the journey. Their hearts beating huge rivers of blood. My idling brain told me they had protected me, which was foolish. But if I were to bet money on it I would have chanced a hundred. The races of life itself, are they not queer and dark? The turf stretches out. The godly animals stretch forth their poignant heads. Is it all for the winning or just for the sake of running? We don’t know. As they rush by, the mares in the fields raise their heads. Well now, friends, that’s all wonders.

[Rachel Axton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This historical novel tells the story of Tennyson Bouguereau, a young Black man born into slavery in northwest Tennessee. But the way the slavery announces itself is through Tennyson's recollection of his father's hopes to marry his mother. To do so he would have to buy her, which he could not afford and so hatched an elaborate plan to acquire the funds by other means. The ill thought through heist is quickly thwarted and his father is killed before the twins are born. Thus Tennyson and his sister Rosalee enter the world and enjoy a wonderful childhood until their mother is killed by a neighbour.

The tensions run deep and ripple under every interaction. Barry's world in the aftermath of the American Civil War is anything but stable and the family and slaves alike are set to protect the land on which they grow tobacco. Lige (the owner of the land, following the passing of his father), returns from the war and sees how Tennyson and Rosalee have kept the farming going and in reward grants them ten acres of land. But the racial and political hostility is never far away and Tennyson eventually has to flee to save his life.

This begins a new chapter for Tennyson. He travels to Nashville and is taken in by a religious group, with his education paid for by the Lawyer Briscoe. I am not sure why he does this, either out of the goodness of his heart or some link between this book and the first two books that Barry has written around the Civil War period, being 'Days Without End' (2016) and 'A Thousand Moons' (2000). Certainly other characters such as Thomas McNulty, John Cole and Winona who appear in these other books, also present themselves in this one.

Tennyson is also a singer and so ends up in a religious choir, and travels with two people he becomes intrinsically linked with Minnie, a potential lover and George, his room mate and best friend. And while the book is set in turbulent times, detailing racial prejudice, displacement, desire for freedom and for purpose, the book to me is more about the relationships between Tennyson, Minnie, George and his sister. The choices and the costs of those choices.

It is a wonderfully beautiful book which explores the fragility of freedom and the struggle to maintain some control over a life that is so easily dictated by others. It is a lament to the wonderful and deep connection that is possible between friends and family. Finally it is also an uneasy observation of the travesty of the attacks on Indian communities. It is lyrical and wonderful and I really enjoyed this read.

I will have to now go back and read the other two to find out more about the other characters who make such a wonderful appearance in this book.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sebastian Barry is one of those writers who can create such perfect sentences you pause in your need to find out what happens next just to enjoy them again. So I was happy to throw my hat in the ring for his new book, The Newer World, when it was offered on Netgalley.
The story kind of follows on from Barry’s earlier books set in America around the time of the Civil War (Days Without End and A Thousand Moons). Characters from those books cross paths with our main character in this one – Tennyson Bouguereau, a man born into slavery. We’re in rural Tennessee, where Tennyson grows up with his twin sister Rosalee, losing his parents in one act of brutality after another. The Civil War and the end of slavery brings hope of freedom, but there are many in the area who supported the Confederate cause and don’t see the freed slaves as anymore deserving of a decent life than before.
The farm where Tennyson and Rosalee work is owned by the Magan family, who only just make a living from their land. But at least they are more kindly than other landowners. Luther Magan even allows the children to be educated and passes on a patch of land to the twins when he dies. His son Elija (Lige) however signs up for the Union during the war, which marks the Magans out among their neighbours. The war seems to bring out the worst in them, and when Tennyson defends the Magans property and his new friends (Lige has opened his home to Cole, McNulty and Winona, from the earlier books), he must leave abruptly, or risk being lynched.
So begins a tale of new beginnings and abrupt departures as Tennyson attempts to make a life for himself. A sympathetic lawyer named Briscoe helps him on his way and Tennyson makes the journey to Nashville where his singing voice lands him an opportunity to join a touring choir. A new friend, George, helps him adapt to his new life. As a reader you realise how basic a slave’s life could be as Tennyson learns about cleanliness and to dress in a suit, his old rags thrown away.
Still, it seems that whatever Tennyson learns and however much he adapts, freedom doesn’t equal acceptance in a white dominated society, and danger and injustice hover around him. But you can’t help feeling hopeful, particularly when he falls in love and is appreciated for his singing voice. Nothing is plain sailing, though, and Tennyson must make a terrible choice, between love and the obligations of friendship.
Barry does an amazing job of recreating the period and the people, his main character feels truly authentic and his struggles really tug on your heart. He’s also a witness to an America putting its colonial stamp on its land which is truly illuminating. For all he endures, he’s a survivor and by the end of the book, you can’t help but feel that there might be another story for Tennyson, and another book. I’d certainly be keen to see how his story continues. Another masterly work from Sebastian Barry, The Newer World is a five-star read from me.
The Newer World can certainly be read as a stand-alone novel and is due for publication on 10 September. With thanks to Netgalley and Faber & Faber, in return for an honest review.

[Jenni Ogden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sebastian Barry is one of the great novelists of our time. Like many great novelists he is Irish. Hie lastest novel is up there with his best. While there are occasional Irish minor characters in this story, it is set, not in Ireland but in another of his favourite locations and time periods, America’s Deep South and during the American Civil War , the abolition of slavery, the gold rush and the Western Indian War. The story is told by Tennyson Bouguereau, a ‘Freed’ man as he and his sister, Rosalie, orphaned as infants, their father hanged off a blacknut tree, their mother purchased for 1200 dollars to work as a house-girl at Luther Magan’s West Tennessee farm. Which Tennyson consdered ‘was the main stroke of luck in this story so far.’ The time along with secondary characters who arrive later in the book, Thomas McNulty, John Cole and Winona, will be familiar to readers of Barry’s ‘Days Without End’ and ‘A Thousand Moons’. But ‘The Newer World’ is a stand alone novel (although it may return you to second readings of those previous novels!

It is a complex story and a sad one, but also a complete pleasure to read, not only because of Barry’s exquisite prose, but also because of the love you will surely very quickly find for gentle giant Tennyson, stroppy Rosalie, and their friends, many of them kind. Between the book-end Part of ‘freed’ slaves’ having to negotiate their way through a world where freedom is a constant struggle in a world where racism is engrained, and a very sad end, there is a central Part where Tennyson, a natural singer, travels to Nashville to join a choir of freeblack men and women. There he meets Minnie, the choir’s lead singer, and George, an ex-soldier. Both become central to his life. The choir goes on tour and then to England, but when they return, George decides to rejoin the army to fight the Western Indian War and Tennyson makes a strange choice to go with him, leaving Minnie, the love of his life behind. The final Part is an ending, a newer world, Tennyson a different man in some ways, but with his losses so deep that the reader, if like me, will continue to think about his story long after the book is finished. Thankyou to Sebastian Barrry for another wonderful story, Faber and Faber, and Netgalley for an advance digital copy.

[Books By Your Bedside · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Faber for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

I have one of Sebastian's books - Old God's Time - but I haven't read it yet so this was my first book of his.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year but it left me feeling a bit flat.

I can't really say whether I liked it or not. It's well written, very evocative and atmospheric, well researched. And yet, whilst I was reading it, I kept thinking "Am I enjoying this or am I really not?"

It's set just after the American Civil War which I admit is not a period I know much, or anything, about so this was quite eye opening.

I do believe this is set in the same world as his books Days Without End and A Thousand Moons, with familiar characters. Now, I haven't read either of them so I cannot say whether I missed anything important, but I didn't feel like I was missing anything.

It is a complex book with a range of difficult topics and ideas and is quite hard to read at times, although I do appreciate how honest and raw he's been in this book.

It's a stream of consciousness really, for the most part. I don't mind first-person narratives but if I had to choose, I wouldn't be choosing them. And so I kept wondering who he was meant to be talking to, if the reader was meant to be working something out or not.

There's no denying the beauty in his writing prose, characters, setting - everything on the technical aspect of writing is wonderful and I'd say akin to Maggie O'Farrell (who I believe is one of the best at doing so).

There isn't much going on. This isn't necessarily a negative as long as there's other things to bolster the plot, and whilst I didn't love it, I did enjoy the world he had created. But apart from saying "it's about a man around the Civil War", I couldn't really tell you in detail about it. And it also went too fast. Whatever was happening, it was told so fast that an entire battle could be written in just one sentence and you don't know if you're coming or going and there's just not enough time to get invested in the characters or the story.

This wasn't as good as I hoped it would be - although I cannot ignore his skill at writing prose and creating a sense of space and atmosphere - but I am still interested to read some of his others.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sebastian Barry’s latest novel, The Newer World, is loosely connected to two of his earlier books, Days Without End and A Thousand Moons. If you’ve read those books you’ll remember the characters of John Cole, Thomas McNulty and Winona and all three appear again in this book. However, it’s not necessary to have read them first as this book works as a standalone and focuses on Tennyson Bouguereau, who was a secondary character in A Thousand Moons.

Tennyson and his twin sister Rosalee are born into slavery in 1840s Tennessee and later freed – although as Tennyson observes, “freed is not the same as free” and a lot is left to be desired in terms of equality and opportunities for people who were formerly enslaved. After the Civil War, Tennyson and Rosalee find themselves living on Lige Magan’s farm, the same place Irish soldier Thomas McNulty, his partner John and their adopted Lakota daughter, Winona, have ended up. The farm won’t be a safe haven for long, though, and eventually Tennyson is forced to flee, leaving Rosalee and their friends behind. Assisted by a kind-hearted lawyer, Tennyson makes his way to Nashville, where he attends a college and finds that he has a talent for singing. Joining a touring choir, he unexpectedly has the chance to visit England and on his return finds that he’s faced with making a decision that could change his life forever.

The novel is narrated by Tennyson himself, a brave decision by Sebastian Barry. His publishers had apparently advised against it due to cultural appropriation concerns, which is obviously a controversial topic, but I thought Tennyson’s narrative voice felt authentic and the themes of racism, prejudice and slavery were handled sensitively and sympathetically. Through Tennyson’s eyes, we see how even after the abolition of slavery he still has to deal with restrictions on his everyday life, such as when he is threatened with a fine for simply ‘walking without purpose’.

During his time at college in Nashville, Tennyson reads the Odyssey and afterwards begins to draw parallels between his own life and the journey of Odysseus who, like himself, is far from home. But Tennyson, however, has lost so much and so many of the people he loved that he’s not sure where home really is anymore: “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 forever.”

Sebastian Barry’s books are always beautifully written and this one is no exception, although I’ve found that in general I seem to prefer his books set in Ireland rather than this sequence set in America. I suspect he may be returning to this world for a fourth novel, though, as several characters have decided to head for Alaska to start a new life. There would also be the option of telling Rosalee’s story, left behind on the farm during Tennyson’s long absence. Whatever he chooses to write next, I’ll be looking out for it.

[Audrey Haylins · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are novels that tell a story, and there are novels that seem to breathe. The Newer World belongs firmly to the latter. Sebastian Barry’s prose is as luminous as ever, each sentence carrying the weight of history while finding extraordinary beauty in the smallest moments of ordinary lives.

Set in the uncertain years following the American Civil War, the novel follows the picaresque journey of freed slave Tennyson Bouguereau from childhood into middle age. His path is shaped by hardship and heartbreak, but equally by unexpected acts of generosity, enduring friendships and the fragile hope that somewhere, beyond the next horizon, a place to belong might finally exist. The reappearance of beloved characters from Days Without End adds another layer of emotional richness, though this is every bit as rewarding for readers discovering Barry’s world for the first time.

Barry never allows us to forget that being a ‘freed’ man is not the same as being truly free. Racism shadows Tennyson wherever he goes, yet the novel is never overwhelmed by darkness. Time and again, compassion answers cruelty, loyalty overcomes prejudice, and love quietly resists despair.

What moved me most was Tennyson himself. He endures profound personal tragedy, yet his voice remains remarkably free of self-pity. Instead, he meets each setback with grace, resilience and an unwavering openness to the people he encounters. His search becomes not simply for safety, but for family, home and a life that feels wholly his own.

The ending offers no neat resolution. Tennyson’s place in this ‘newer world’ remains uncertain, making the final pages all the more poignant. His search is not over when the novel ends, and perhaps that is Barry’s point. Some lives are not defined by the certainty of arrival but by the courage to keep searching. The Newer World is a profoundly humane, exquisitely written novel that will stay with me for a very long time.

[Di S · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up to 4

Review of advance copy received from Netgalley

The Newer World builds directly on the mid-19th century American setting Barry established in Days Without End and is narrated by Tennyson Bouguereau, a Black man born into slavery in northwest Tennessee. He is a talented singer, and a devoted brother to his twin sister Rosalee, however he is forced to flee his farmland home after a battle to defend it makes him a wanted man. The novel tracks his journey through a choir school in Nashville, an unusual transatlantic trip to Victorian England and an army camp in New Mexico.

I thought I'd previously read Barry's related novel 'Days Without End' but when I started this the characters felt unfamiliar, so perhaps I didn't. I had previously read 'The Secret Scripture', but this is only loosely related, being set in Ireland and telling the story of Roseanne McNulty. Although it's possible to read The Newer World as a standalone, I'd recommend reading both 'Days Without End' and 'A Thousand Moons' first.

There's lots to enjoy in this novel. Barry's writing is often poetic and lyrical, and he creates vivid and believable characters who form meaningful relationships with one another. I wasn't fully engaged in Tennyson's journey however and found that just as each story was developing it seemed to move onto the next location. The first person narration throughout is both the novel's strength and its weakness. Personally, I wanted to learn more of Rosalee's story, and her survival in the decade Tennyson was away, but perhaps that's for another time.

There will be mixed views about the ending, which points to Tennyson's future 'direction of travel' without giving any certainty that he will reach his destination. Again, leaving it nicely open for the next novel probably!

[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.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘The Newer World’ is a beautifully written novel set in the aftermath of the American Civil War at the centre of which is freed slave Tennyson Bouguereau. Sebastian Barry’s setting and focus is similar to his earlier ‘Days Without End’ (one of my all-time favourites) and ‘A Thousand Moons’; important characters from these stories appear again in Barry’s latest novel. However, ‘The Newer World’ reads equally well as a stand-alone work.

Barry’s ability to describe timeless feelings and explore themes of universal interest so eloquently is nowhere more apparent than in this story. From farmhand to singer to soldier, we see how Tennyson responds to the opportunities he is given, sometimes wisely and sometimes not, all the while recognising that his people are ‘so far down the scale there was no scale down there’ and that ‘Freed not the same as free.’

A sense of tremendous fortitude is conveyed through Tennyson as he ruminates that, ‘A year can feel like a long time to live through, but afterwards, what is it? It has only the thickness of a snowflake’. His careful consideration of his experiences and his lack of self-pity is a hugely endearing feature. Tennyson has to bear all manner of burdens but is also able to take joy from the everyday: his singing, his friendships, his horse, his studies. The ending of the novel chimes poignantly with the poet Tennyson’s concluding line of ‘Ulysses’ in which the eponymous hero, much like ‘our’ Tennyson, still experiencing difficult circumstances, vows ’To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.’ A wonderful read.

My thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber Ltd for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second Sebastian Barry novel and the first in the Days Without End series. It is about the son of a slave in Tennessee before, during and after the Civil War. Barry gives us an outsider's perspective on the ugliest parts of our history. He calls the postwar period The Newer World purposely because the world is simply newer, not necessarily better, because the lessons of history have not been learned. Our protagonist, Tennyson Bouguereau, lives on a plantation with an owner that is kinder than most with his twin sister, Rosalie. He is educated by a local lawyer. When the war is over, they are freed but decide to stay. Oddly, life actually gets more complicated for freed slaves in the post-Reconstruction south, as the rules on paper do not match the rules in reality, and the south becomes enmeshed in the lowest forms of petty revenge politics. The lawyer sends Tennyson to Nashville to what eventually becomes Fisk College. From here, he travels the US and England, makes a best friend and falls in love. However, he still cannot walk the streets of Nashville unmolested unless he dresses in his former slave clothes. Instead of using this new freedom to become something else, he and his friend enlist in the army, where they are immediately shipped to the West to fight the remaining free Native American tribes to force their surrender. Thus, he takes part in the most American of stories in which the least powerful are pitted against each other to obliterate both. This is a powerful story of American history with clear reverberations in the present moment. 5 stars. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

[Jill Thomson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story, narrated byTennyson Bouguereau, begins with events leading up to him and his twin sister Rosalee, who were born into slavery, being orphaned. Seismic events from the American Civil War and abolition of slavery to the Western Indian War and gold rush form the backdrop of this remarkable novel.
After some dreadful events on the farm where he and Rosalee have been kindly treated by the owner Luther Magan, Tennyson realises he will have to leave Tennessee to survive.
His journey takes him to Nashville where he joins a free black choir and meets Minnie whom he falls in love with, he also meets George who becomes an integral part of his life. They later join the army together and end up fighting American Indians, the irony of racism not lost on him.
There are so many colourful characters in this book and although this is Tennyson Bouguereau’s story it was an added bonus to come across much loved characters from the author’s earlier novels ‘Days Without End’ and ‘A Thousand Moons.’
Sebastian Barry is one of my favourite authors, his prose is lyrical and I learned so much about the reality of life for black Americans after the abolition of slavery where they were ‘freed but not free.’
Although it makes for grim reading at times equally this is a tale of friendship, determination and hope.
Speaking of which I hope the author will do a follow up novel to this one as I’ve become completely invested in Tennyson’s story!


Many thanks to NetGalley and Faber for the ARC

[Olivier Santamaria · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story takes place in America in the mid 1800s at the time of the American civil war, the abolition of slavery, the gold rush and the Western Indian wars. These events provide a vivid background to the story of two siblings, Tennyson and his sister Rosalee, who were born into slavery and found themselves orphaned early in life.

The novel explores their journey into the new world as “free” black Americans but this new found freedom is hard earned and hard lived. With little means of their own and facing systemic racial discrimination, they find the courage to explore this “newer world” relying on the kindness of strangers and the depth of newly formed friendships to survive and form a new identity of their own.

The story is narrated by Tennyson himself and we journey with him through his life and through the events of his time as he searches for his place in the world.

While the author never shies away from the atrocities of war or the abject levels of racial discrimination against black Americans and American Indians, the novel never settles into any form of judgement or hopelessness. Instead the story radiates hope, courage, friendship, love and the prospect of a better future.

As usual, Sebastian Barry’s prose is exquisite and his writing profoundly moving, evocative and humorous. It is a novel that stays with you well after you finished reading it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Faber and Faber for this advanced copy in exchange of my honest feedback.

[Milly Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel tells the story of Tennyson Bouguereau in the aftermath of the American Civil War in 1866. The war freed the slaves but in the Southern states, being freed was not being free. Tennyson tells us his story, he lived with his mother and sister, Rosalee, in a household where the owner did not believe that whipping slaves was a prerequisite. When ‘freedom’ was granted Tennyson becomes a drifter and ends up in a Christian choral school in Nashville where as well as singing in the choir he gets an education. He reads the classics and The Odyssey is referenced many times throughout the novel because just like Odysseus, Tennyson is on his own odyssey to return home to his sister. In the choir, Tennyson makes two close friends and even travels to England before joining the army. This is Tennyson story of survival in a brutal world where he might be a freed man but freedom is not his. He still has to look over his shoulder as he is still not accepted as part of society. But I was drawn to Tennyson, this man who loves with all his heart, this man who is loyal - the characterisation is excellent. I have since learned that some of the characters we meet here appear in other Barry books, but this was very much a standalone in my opinion. I didn’t feel that I had missed out on anything. As for the writing, as with all Sebastian Barry novels, the prose is lyrical and beautiful even though some scenes are brutal. I think I now need to look for the previous novels

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the story a bit disappointing.

Narrator Tennyson is an African American slave in Tennessee at the commencement of the Civil War. He and his sister are treated contemptuously by the local whites. After the war they have been 'freed' by law, but are still treated as third or fourth class humans.
Later, Tennyson joins a black choir. How are the choir members treated in Nashville and when they go on tour? Very poorly of course.
Later (again) Tennyson joins the army and is involved in putting down Native Americans (side reference to poor treatment of them). He is still treated with contempt.
So it appears the author is ticking boxes. Look how badly the US treated its black people. (Why is it still happening in the 21st century?)
But look how Tennyson survives all these hardships.

Curiously, the choir manages to cross the Atlantic and tour Britain, where they are treated with high esteem. It all seems quite unlikely. Is the author saying that the English upper class were very polite and accepting of black Americans in the 19th century?

So what saves this from being a three star book?
The lyrical prose of Barry's high standard makes it a joy to read, with an overall promotion to 3.6, at least.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a prepublication ebook. Having read several of Barry's earlier novels I approached this with great expectations, but not all of them were met.

[Chris L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sebastian Barry's writing is such a comfort. There's something so gentle and loving about his writing even when he writes about horrific subjects. That's the case with his new novel, 'The Newer World' which is Tennyson Bouguereau's first-person account of how being a freed slave does not mean he is psychologically or even physically safe.

Tennyson is on a journey. Barry makes a point that Tennyson comes from a history of violence, and even if Tennyson were part of a less violent family, he would still be a member of a slave owner's family. In a good bit of timing, Sebastian Barry uses 'The Odyssey' as a bit of a motif as Tennyson learns about 'The Odyssey' at a Choral School, where he gets an education. In both works, it's the idea of home, and Odysseus and Tennyson are barred either physically or psychologically from returning to their home or finding a new home.

Barry does a fantastic job of showing us the constant cruelty of living in nineteenth-century America. This is a book about reclaiming the narrative and Tennyson telling his story in his words. Tennyson is a witness to the real America, and 'The Newer World' is the kind of novel that would probably get banned in American schools these days for telling the truth. Sebastian Barry's 'The Newer World' is another stunning, beautiful and provocative novel from him.

[Teresa Cornelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Newer World by Sebastian Barry
A new novel by Sebastian Barry is always something to celebrate and his latest is no exception. It is set in America’s Deep South during the time of the abolition of slavery and the aftermath of the American Civil War. There are some characters who we first met in Days Without End but the main character is Tennyson Bouguereau who is a “freed man” but not a free man. You do not need to have read Days Without End to enjoy this novel.
Tennyson and his sister Rosalie were orphaned as infants when their father was the victim of a lynch mob and his mother was bought for $1200 to work as a house girl. Tennyson and his sister must negotiate a world where they have no rights and racism is an everyday occurrence. It is an exquisitely written book and there are phrases which you want to re-read for the sheer pleasure of them.
This is a wonderful but sad story where you become involved in the life of Tennyson and his sister Rosalie and also the life of the friends they meet along the way. I will definitely be recommending this novel at my various book groups. Thanks to Faber and Faber, Sebatian Barry and to Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautifully written, absorbing novel is of Tennyson Bouguereau narrating his life story in the time after the American Civil war. He and his twin Rosalee were born slaves, and all on the farm had hard lives struggling to work the land. Subsequently freed, he leaves the farm but he is to find ‘freed is not the same as free’.

His journey takes him to Nashville to train as a singer in a choir for other freed black slaves, where he meets Minnie, but when the choir go on tour they find they are not accepted by the white community. On a trip to the UK the audiences are more appreciative but the constant performances take their toll. Subsequently, after returning in the US, Tennyson joins the army alongside his friend George, signing on for five years.

The prose is exquisite, the whole is brought to life and you could almost be sitting alongside Tennyson as he tells his story. Very evocative and thought provoking, it stayed with me after I finished reading.

Many thanks to Sebastian Barry, Faber and Faber and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a early copy, it is much appreciated.

[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.

My thanks to Faber and Faber Ltd for supplying a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.