Nourishing read in Booker listing

Night Boat to Tangier — Kevin Barry (Canongate, $32.99) Reviewed by Louise Ward, Wardini Books

This surreal and almost dreamlike novel charts the hours spent by two ageing Irish drug dealers waiting at a ferry terminal at the Spanish port of

Algeciras. They are scouting the crowd for Maurice’s daughter, missing for three years, and have time to reminisce, fight some memories off and welcome others.

Maurice and Charlie have been friends from childhood. They are violent, insane, deeply loyal to each other, almost in love. Their meanderings around Spain and Northern Africa in the pursuit of illegal substances have made them at times rich, at others destitute and hunted.

The narrative runs from current musings at the port, including their interrogation of a young ‘crusty’ type with a dog they believe may know the whereabouts of Maurice’s daughter, Dilly. The pair have an air of sweaty desperation about them, at odds with their ability to wait, threaten the crusty. They are a dangerous comedy double act — Maurice with one good eye and Charlie with one good leg — ribbing each other and causing the reader to snort with their colloquial Cork one-liners. When the story delves into the darkness — mental torture, drug addiction, broken relationships — the cobwebby corners of their psyches are brought into stark relief. These are men who have hurt people, even killed people, but who are defined by raw, ugly emotion. And what’s Dilly’s story? Born into her parents’ drug addiction, loved but lost. Intelligent, poignant, crude and sophisticated this novel is a nourishing read, deserved of its Booker Prize long listing. Once read, you’ll not forget them.