by Mary Cullen

Old God’s Time is a haunting and powerful novel of love and loss, grief and memory.  At its heart is the sexual abuse of children in the Irish church, and its legacy of blighted lives.

The story is narrated by retired policeman Tom Kettle, who has come to live alone by the sea at Dalkey, near Dublin.  One day he gets a knock on the door from two young policemen who are looking into an old case.  Tom is drawn back into the past.  Soon, nothing is as it seems.  Children appear and disappear, the sea makes endless shifting patterns in the bay, and Tom’s mysterious neighbours add to the growing sense of unreality.  Memories of his beloved wife June and their precious children mingle with his day-to-day existence, blurring the boundaries between past and present as the story of their lives gradually unfolds.

Barry is a master storyteller.  He draws the threads of his narrative together with great skill across times and places, seeing them through Tom’s eyes.  The visit of the two young policemen had ‘unmoored him, unsettled him, terrified him...  Their coming out was an act of terror, but how could they know that?’  Old fears and painful memories begin to surface.

The life and death of his wife June, the love of Tom’s life, is at the heart of the story.

Dr Mary Cullen is editor of Open House