Time of the Child

A heartbreaking and life-affirming novel about small towns and second chances - from the international bestselling author of Four Letters of Love


Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in the little town of Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from his community. A visit from the doctor is always a sign of bad things to come.

His youngest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father's shadow, and remains there, having missed her chance at real love - and passed up an offer of marriage from an unsuitable man.

But in the advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy's lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care. As the winter passes, father and daughter's lives, the understanding of their family, and their role in their community are changed forever.

Review

There is something of Trollope's Barsetshire here, in the sense of an entire place rendered in fine detail ... Williams's phrasing is immaculate and even the smallest characters are drawn with attention and detail. But Dr Troy is the heart of this slow, rich novel. The scene in which he dances with the baby in a quiet kitchen is one of the most affecting I've read ― The Times

There's a quiet grace to this slow-paced, poetic novel set in rural Ireland in the run-up to Christmas 1962 ... A story brimming with kindness and courage ― Mail on Sunday

Readers looking to get into the Christmas spirit early this year will find plenty of it in Niall Williams's new novel, Time of the Child, a warm and life-affirming story about ordinary people going to extraordinary lengths ― Irish Times

A sublime tale of small-town Irish life ... A slow-burning, finely crafted novel about second chances, humanity and familial love, Time of the Child rewards close reading ... Williams's descriptive language is extraordinary - his use of understatement and irony artfully deployed, his characterisation sublime. I find it astonishing that, despite his global success, he has yet to win a big award ― Observer

A powerful pleasure to find myself back in Faha where the prose is luminous, the people irresistible, the stories mesmerizing, and it never stops raining -- KAREN JOY FOWLER

Williams quietly lets us glimpse the story's underlying harshness between the lines of his warm and finely turned festive tale ... A lyrical, mid-20th-century tapestry set in a slowly transforming society as the advent of electricity revolutionises everyday life ― Daily Mail

Kind and funny ... Akin to Dickens in his observations, Williams' descriptions of gesture hint at his characters' interior landscapes ― WOMAN & HOME

With writing so stunning, Time of the Child forces the reader to turn down page after page to always remember what genius is. Another glorious and touching novel from Niall Williams, one of the world's greatest storytellers -- Anne Griffin, author of the number one Irish bestseller When All is Said and Done

On the surface, Time of the Child by Niall Williams is an elegiac portrait of life in an Irish village in the Christmas season of 1962. But it is so much more than that. Somehow, by laying bare the inner lives of these decent country people, my own life feels so much richer for having read it. I was deeply moved by this novel -- Mary Beth Keane, New York Times-bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes and The Half Moon

There is so much to admire in Niall Williams new novel - the lyrical language, how landscape and destiny intertwine, the complex bonds of community - but what impresses most is how vividly he enters the innermost thoughts of his characters, thus revealing their seemingly quiet existences brim with the profoundest questionings of how we should live our lives. Time of the Child is a triumph -- Ron Rash, author of Serena and The Caretaker

About the Author

Niall Williams was born in Dublin. He is the author of nine novels, including History of the Rain, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize and Four Letters of Love, which will soon be a major motion picture starring Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter, and Gabriel Byrne. His most recent novel, This Is Happiness was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Book of the Year and longlisted for The Walter Scott Prize. He lives in Kiltumper in County Clare, Ireland.