When the Children Come by Barry Kirwan

Book Review: When the Children Come by Barry Kirwan

Nathan, emotionally scarred after three tours in Afghanistan, lives alone in Manhattan until New Year’s Eve, when he meets Lara. The next morning, he notices something strange is going on – a terrified kid is being pursued by his father, and a girl, Sally, pleads with Nathan to hide her from her parents. There is no internet, no television, no phone coverage. 

Nathan, Lara and Sally flee along the East Coast, encountering madmen, terrorists, the armed forces, and other children frightened for their lives. The only thing Nathan knows for sure is that he must not fall asleep…

I will be the first to admit that I don’t read a lot of books in this genre so I wasn’t expecting to like it.

When The Children Come is also my first introduction to Barry Kirwan. My first thought when I finished this novel was WOW!

Right from page one, this had me drawn in, asking questions and wanting to turn the page to find out what was going on. Why can’t Nathan fall asleep? How has a man who doesn’t want children end up being responsible for over two hundred? I just had to find out.

Nathan is a broken character and so you wonder whether he is going to step up when it counts. However, saying that, he is someone you immediately root for.

The author is good at threading doubt and fear for both the situation and the people in it. Who can Nathan, Lara and Sally trust? Can we even rely on them?

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