Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry

This is longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize, which has happened a couple of times before. The Irish can certainly write, and this one is amongst the most productive. His books cover a range of experiences and he is an amazing storyteller. In this book, grief, guilt and regret feature prominently. Also, that America is not the only country where you cannot trust the cops. Tom Kettle is a retired policeman living among the gothic wilds of the Irish coast in a lean-to attached to a Victorian castle. He’s fairly miserable to begin with; a crushing set of personal losses – his wife and two children are dead but hauntingly on his mind – having left him isolated and confused. His hard-earned peace in his post-work life is disturbed when two former colleagues knock at his door, asking for help on a cold case concerning crimes by priests. The story is grounded in this shameful chapter of recent Irish history, the covered-up crimes of the “empire of the Irish priesthood”, which caused so much suffering to infants in its care. Turns out Tom and his wife have a murderous secret that he has kept for her, involving her abuse and their revenge for that. This is the book that addresses the impact of trauma on memory.