October book of the month: Days without End by Sebastian Barry - Join the author webchat 6 November, 9pm

[RachelMumsnet]

Our October book of the month is Sebastian Barry's remarkable novel about two young men growing up in 1800s America. Having signed up for the army they are sent to fight in the Indian Wars and later in the American Civil War. This is a brutal and violent story but also an epic love story beautifully told by Barry's sensuous and lyrical prose.

Days Without End is the deserved winner of the 2016 Costa Book Award and was longlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize. It is undoubtedly one of our favourite books of the year and we're honoured and excited that Sebastian Barry will be joining us in November to answer questions about the novel. We'll announce the date as soon as it's firmed up but in the meantime, hop over to the book of the month page to apply for a free copy (there's 50 up for grabs). We'll be closing the giveaway at 10am on Wednesday 4 October and the books will be sent out later that week. If you're not selected this month, please do buy a copy and read ahead of the webchat.

This is the first of your books that I’ve read and I was enthralled... such beautiful vivid writing, I felt like I was watching a movie as I was reading... I couldn’t put the book down!! Which other historical periods interest you in terms of any future writing?

Many, many thanks to Mumsnet for a copy of this book. A really powerful story. Extremely well written, it’s clear a lot of hard work went into this.

I'd like to ask Sebastian a couple of general questions, if I may ..

• --> Do you have a personal favourite out of the books you've had published? And/or out of books published by other authors?

• --> By sheer coincidence, I watched the Matthew McConaughey American Civil War movie ‘Free State Of Jones’ just before beginning to read ‘Days Without End’. The images from the film were invoked when picturing the vivid scenery descriptions and events. I think ‘Days Without End’ would also make for an interesting film or TV adaptation. If this were a possibility, how would you feel about your work in 'other people's hands', and would you feel compelled to intervene with a ‘do’s and don’t’ instructions list for producers?

Fab book. I sobbed at the end. Thank you Mumsnet. Please can I ask how on earth you write about such a grim time in history?! I’d have been in bits.

@BouncingJellyfish

This is the second Sebastian Barry novel I've read, and it wasn't til the very very end that I realized that these characters probably cross over from The Secret Scripture, which I read about four years ago. I just googled it- is Thomas the absent husband of Roseanne?

I was really looking forward to reading this, as I remembered how much I enjoyed how well written The Secret Scripture was. This book didn't disappoint me. I really believed in the characters. I was rooting for Thomas/Thomasina, and wanted him to have a happy ending, living peacefully with Winona and John Cole. I began this book "cold" without reading any reviews or synopsis, only that it was set in the Civil War. It was moving and powerful, and had me emotionally invested in the three main characters. What inspired you to take Thomas McNulty from Ireland to America, and did you go to visit the locations in the novel to help you write about them? Also, if you don't mind me asking, were there personal reasons and experiences, to why you wrote about a relationship between two men? I really enjoyed enjoyed reading this book, as well as The Secret Scripture.

Dear BouncingJellyfish,

What inspired it was a few words from my grandfather years and years ago, in his old house in Monkstown (freezing cold, so we shared a bed). He said in passing his great uncle had been 'at the Indian Wars'. It has taken about fifty years to work out what that might mean for an Irish person to do that.

I have been around America a few times but the wonderful and also sad fact is that America really no longer exists -- has to be reimagined and 'made up'.

My son Toby came out as gay at 16 which set me to thinking what that might have been like in 1850s America...

@barricade

Many, many thanks to Mumsnet for a copy of this book. A really powerful story. Extremely well written, it’s clear a lot of hard work went into this.

I'd like to ask Sebastian a couple of general questions, if I may ..

• --> Do you have a personal favourite out of the books you've had published? And/or out of books published by other authors?

• --> By sheer coincidence, I watched the Matthew McConaughey American Civil War movie ‘Free State Of Jones’ just before beginning to read ‘Days Without End’. The images from the film were invoked when picturing the vivid scenery descriptions and events. I think ‘Days Without End’ would also make for an interesting film or TV adaptation. If this were a possibility, how would you feel about your work in 'other people's hands', and would you feel compelled to intervene with a ‘do’s and don’t’ instructions list for producers?

Dear Barricade,

It will be a film, with the 'help of God and a few policemen' as the Irish saying has it.

All my books are my favourites as all my children are!

Hey there. I really enjoyed reading the book. The contrast between the soldier’s life and their act was so extreme. Were the characters based on anybody/research you carried out?

It's funny that so many people are saying they'd like to see the book made into a film. I'm just worried about who would be cast as John Cole -surely there's no-one in real life as handsome as John Cole in the book?

@Gooseysgirl

This is the first of your books that I’ve read and I was enthralled... such beautiful vivid writing, I felt like I was watching a movie as I was reading... I couldn’t put the book down!! Which other historical periods interest you in terms of any future writing?

Dear Gooseysgirl

For forty years and over seven books and some 10 plays I have been trying to trail after these lost ancestors of mine, whether they were lost in Ireland or elsewhere... I am not quite sure where it will bring me next. Sometimes your own country can seem the most unknown 'foreign' place of all, so I am happy to try again to understand Ireland.

Finished the book just in time for the webchat. I kept putting off reading it as the Indian/Civil War backdrop felt as though it wouldn't be my kind of read. Don't know why I worried - I was completely engrossed from page one. Thomas, the narrator, is engaging, vulnerable and incredibly brave in a dangerous time.

id love to know how much research Sebastian did into the Indian Wars, in particular, as the story keeps returning to these conflicts. Were any of the described battles/encounters based on actual events or people?

I luffs John Cole.

I must admit that I hadn’t read any of your work but I must read more after finishing Days without End.

I do hope it’s made into a film

Can I ask which authors inspire you?

It's funny, it's a period in history that we aren't taught at school (I certainly wasn't.) So I get my education on it from literature. And what you've done Sebastian is ensure I'll be trying to read more on this from here on in, because it's such a bleak and sad time, but this book contained both hope and love. Are you a positive soul at heart?!

@Givemecoffeeplease

Fab book. I sobbed at the end. Thank you Mumsnet. Please can I ask how on earth you write about such a grim time in history?! I’d have been in bits.

Dear Givemecoffeeplease,

Isn't it terrible that I am delighted you have been in bits?!

Nothing too grim for the writer. Strangely enough, it was an utter delight to write the adventure of a lifetime really. Because I fell in love with Thomas and John and Winona and all their friends and colleagues even the very dark Starling Carlton!

I enjoyed this book and felt like I was listening to Thomas telling his story, although the descriptions of human and animal suffering were not easy reading.

I would like to ask what made you write about this period of American history and if you had much prior knowledge of it.

Also in bits throughout. The scenes where they have so little, no home comforts, nothing. The part where they are freezing and getting frost bite was brutal. It was very vivid, very real

I loved reading about Thomas/Thomasina and John Cole and Winona.

Where did the idea for the dancing girls part of the story come from?

@FernieB

Finished the book just in time for the webchat. I kept putting off reading it as the Indian/Civil War backdrop felt as though it wouldn't be my kind of read. Don't know why I worried - I was completely engrossed from page one. Thomas, the narrator, is engaging, vulnerable and incredibly brave in a dangerous time.

id love to know how much research Sebastian did into the Indian Wars, in particular, as the story keeps returning to these conflicts. Were any of the described battles/encounters based on actual events or people?

Dear FernieB,

When you are going to write a book about an historical period you tend to panic and over-read a little. I sit here still surrounded by all the history books and old accounts of things I read -- many of the battles will be half recognisable to people who know these matters better than myself. Little scraps of things. Like the grass catching fire in the civil war. Like the terrifying mutilations visited on Native peoples after battles. All true I am afraid.

One of things that surprised me in my reading was the huge involvement of young Irishmen in the civil war -- many fresh off the boat, obliged to sign up to earn their citizenship.

Hi Sebastian

What a truly haunting book, beautifully written and so emotive. Absolutely loved this and couldn't put it down once I started it as I went into it blind. Will definitely read more of your work.

How long did it take you to write? Did it take longer than your other works? For some reason, I just got the impression that it had been rewritten and rewritten to get it so perfect?

@Givemecoffeeplease

It's funny, it's a period in history that we aren't taught at school (I certainly wasn't.) So I get my education on it from literature. And what you've done Sebastian is ensure I'll be trying to read more on this from here on in, because it's such a bleak and sad time, but this book contained both hope and love. Are you a positive soul at heart?!

I do hope so. After 60 I decided to aim for happiness, having devoted myself to the opposite for far too many years!

I read this book while on holiday last summer, and I loved it. I plan to read it a second time, with a pen in hand - if my parents in law ever give it back to me.. There were sentences and passages that I found so moving and rang so true - about the passage of time, and Thomas' love for John and Winona, and so many other things. It was one of my favourite books of the last few years. It was so interesting to read about an aspect of history that I had never come across - namely the cross dressing scene and also a similar subculture observed by Thomas among the Native Americans.
My brother recently told us he is gay and my mother struggled a little with this at first; she read Days Without End when it was first published and I'm not being facetious when I say that this book really seemed to help her with her feelings at the time. It is just so natural in describing the depth of feeling and care between two people - no matter the gender.
I have read most of your books - am in complete admiration of your skill. What a gift your books are for the reader. Thank you.

Many thanks for answering my questions, Sebastian. And really interesting reading all your other responses, too. It's great to gain a little insight into the working mind of an accomplished author.

If you have time ...

What would be the first piece of advice you would give to anyone attempting to write fiction?

Can I ask you about your writing process? How do you plot everything? What was the initial spark for 'Days Without End', and how many hours/days were sent on research before the actual writing began?

@MoNigheanDonn

I loved reading about Thomas/Thomasina and John Cole and Winona.

Where did the idea for the dancing girls part of the story come from?

Dear MoNigheanDonn

I saw an old photo of two boys dressed as girls from the 1850s, also another where boys are dancing with each other in a bar, and it started me wondering about all that. Very mysterious and wonderful. There are no surviving photographs of the Irish famine -- just a few years later there are thousands taken in America in the 1860s onward. What windows into the past they are, precious visions.

@aristocat

I must admit that I hadn’t read any of your work but I must read more after finishing Days without End. I do hope it’s made into a film

Can I ask which authors inspire you?

Dear Aristocat

Joseph Conrad -- and for this book Francis Parkman (great great man) and many others. I feel lucky also to live in a time of wonderful writers all around me in Ireland and elsewhere. What a privilege to know them, even in passing for five minutes.

Also Peter Matthiessen who wrote The Snow Leopard -- briefly a friend in America, and a great advocate of Native America in the present day.

@barricade

Many thanks for answering my questions, Sebastian. And really interesting reading all your other responses, too. It's great to gain a little insight into the working mind of an accomplished author.

If you have time ...

What would be the first piece of advice you would give to anyone attempting to write fiction?

Can I ask you about your writing process? How do you plot everything? What was the initial spark for 'Days Without End', and how many hours/days were sent on research before the actual writing began?

Dear Barricade

The best way to go is blind and hopeful -- don't mind the rain in your face or the thunder in your ears. You'll get there.

@spinningheart

I read this book while on holiday last summer, and I loved it. I plan to read it a second time, with a pen in hand - if my parents in law ever give it back to me.. There were sentences and passages that I found so moving and rang so true - about the passage of time, and Thomas' love for John and Winona, and so many other things. It was one of my favourite books of the last few years. It was so interesting to read about an aspect of history that I had never come across - namely the cross dressing scene and also a similar subculture observed by Thomas among the Native Americans. My brother recently told us he is gay and my mother struggled a little with this at first; she read Days Without End when it was first published and I'm not being facetious when I say that this book really seemed to help her with her feelings at the time. It is just so natural in describing the depth of feeling and care between two people - no matter the gender. I have read most of your books - am in complete admiration of your skill. What a gift your books are for the reader. Thank you.

Dear spinningheart

I am so proud to read this. Just so proud. Maybe I'm tearing up a little! But you can't see me so that's alright. One of the greatest boons and wonders in my life and all our lives was Toby coming out.