by Kevin Barry
First published 2019
Maurice Hearne sits in the grimy waiting room of Algeciras ferry terminal on October 23, 2018. His partner Charlie Redmond waits beside him. Both men have spent decades smuggling drugs between Ireland and North Africa. Tonight they watch for Dilly, Maurice's estranged daughter who may arrive from Tangier or board a boat heading there. The two aging criminals don't know which direction she'll travel or if she'll appear at all. As the hours pass in the sketchy Spanish port, their vigil becomes a reckoning with the past. Maurice and Charlie revisit their long partnership built on violence and betrayal. They remember the women they loved and lost, the deals that went wrong, the years of exile that shaped them. Their shared history unfolds through the night as they wait for a young woman who represents Maurice's last connection to a life beyond crime.
Genres: fiction, drama, literary-fiction, crime
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: redemption, second-chance
Setting: Algeciras, Ireland, North Africa, Tangier
Period: 2018
255 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday
Content warnings: violence