This Is Happiness
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BEST NOVEL IN THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 WALTER SCOTT PRIZE
By the author of Four Letters of Love, the international bestseller now a major film starring Helena Bonham Carter and Pierce Brosnan
‘I love this book so passionately' Ann Patchett
‘Lyrical, tender and sumptuously perceptive’ Sunday Times
After dropping out of the seminary, seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe finds himself back in Faha, a small Irish parish where nothing ever changes, including the ever-falling rain.
But one morning the rain stops and news reaches the parish – electricity is finally arriving. With it comes a lodger to Noel’s home, Christy McMahon. Though he can’t explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed.
As Noel navigates his coming-of-age, Christy’s buried past gradually comes to light, casting a glow on a small world and making it new.
‘If you’re craving a novel of delicate wit laced with rare insight, this, truly, is happiness’ Washington Post
‘Written with a turn of phrase that makes the reader want to underline something on every page’
Financial Times
‘What makes this so compelling and enjoyable is Williams’s transparent love of his characters and delight in his setting’ Observer
Niall Williams was born in Dublin in 1958. His critically acclaimed and bestselling fiction has been shortlisted for the Irish Times Literature Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the IMPAC Award. Williams’ debut novel Four Letters of Love, an international bestseller, has been adapted by the author for screen and will star Helena Bonham-Carter, Pierce Brosnan and Gabriel Byrne. His most recent novel Time of the Child was an instant Irish Times bestseller and was awarded the Kerry Group Novel of the Year Award. He lives in Kiltumper in County Clare, with his wife, Christine.
niallwilliams.com