The novel is narrated by Thomas McNulty, an Irish émigré who flees to Canada and then America to escape the Great Famine.

In America he befriends John Cole and the two fall in love, working first, as young boys, as cross-dressing entertainers and then enlisting in the army and taking part in both the Indian Wars and the American Civil War.

[1] Thomas McNulty is a fictionalised version of a past relative of Sebastian Barry's who was said to have fought in the Indian Wars.

[5] The judges of the prize called it “A miracle of a book – both epic and intimate – that manages to create spaces for love and safety in the noise and chaos of history.”[6] It won the 2017 Walter Scott Prize,[7] and was selected by Time magazine as one of its top ten novels of 2017.

[8] In 2019, Days Without End was ranked 74th on The Guardian's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.