As It Is in Heaven

by Niall Williams

Love is not easy, especially if you find the woman of your dreams and then lose her – as Philip Griffin and his son Stephen each discover in turn. Stephen is just a boy when his mother and sister are killed in a car crash, and his father never recovers from the he wasn’t involved but is consumed by grief, his only desire to be reunited with his wife. Before that happens, though, Philip wants to ensure the happiness of his son, Stephen – now a grown man. ‘As it is in Heaven, Niall Williams’ tale of love and tragedy, will leave you in tears’ Tatler ‘A bitter-sweet novel about passionate love giving way to commitment, grief to a sort of healing’ Irish Times ‘A tender and sober novel with a faith in romance that is absolute’ Daily Express ‘Delicious coincidence and tragedy, as extraordinary lives unravel and intertwine’ Guardian

Genres: Fiction, Ireland, Irish Literature, Romance, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Novels

334 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Niall Williams studied English and French Literature at University College Dublin and graduated with a MA in Modern American Literature. He moved to New York in 1980 where he married Christine Breen. His first job in New York was opening boxes of books in Fox and Sutherland's Bookshop in Mount Kisco. He later worked as a copywriter for Avon Books in New York City before leaving America with Chris in 1985 to attempt to make a life as a writer in Ireland. They moved on April 1st to the cottage in west Clare that Chris's grandfather had left eighty years before to find his life in America.

His first four books were co-written with Chris and tell of their life together in Co Clare.

In 1991 Niall's first play THE MURPHY INITIATIVE was staged at The Abbey Theatre in Dublin. His second play, A LITTLE LIKE PARADISE was produced on the Peacock stage of The Abbey Theatre in 1995. His third play, THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT, was produced by Galway's Druid Theatre Company in 1999.

Niall's first novel was FOUR LETTERS OF LOVE. Published in 1997, it went on to become an international bestseller and has been published in over twenty countries. His second novel, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN was published in 1999 and short-listed for the Irish Times Literature Prize. Further novels include THE FALL OF LIGHT, ONLY SAY THE WORD, BOY IN THE WORLD and its sequel, BOY AND MAN.

In 2008 Bloomsbury published Niall's fictional account of the last year in the life of the apostle, JOHN.

His new novel, HISTORY OF THE RAIN, will be published by Bloomsbury in the UK/Ireland and in the USA Spring 2014. (Spanish and Turkish rights have also been sold.)

Niall has recently written several screenplays. Two have been optioned by film companies.

Reviews

[Jeffrey Keeten · Rating 4 out of 5]

”When he went to university and began to study history, it was the now familiar presence of the disappeared that attracted him. He sat in the glass-fronted room of the library and lost himself with the ghosts of the previous three hundred years. He kept his head down and his eyes moving on the pages, but his mind took flight, and soon even his body was elsewhere, a fact noticed only by old Murtagh, the ancient librarian assistant, who himself had long ago vanished into the books of Thomas Hardy.”

Whenever life has become too heavy, too tragic, I’ve always been able to save myself in books. I can for hours at a time transport myself to another time, another place, meet new friends, or unlike real life, battle defeatable villains. Stephen has the best of reasons for needing to escape into the pages of books. He has lost love and needs love, but doesn’t have the first idea about how to find it. Sometimes, when we are most helpless, fate lends a hand.

As I was reading this book, I kept thinking about the song by Louis XIV called Finding Out True Love is Blind, which is a saucy little song about lust and love. The songwriter talks about all the unusually pretty girls he wants to make it with.

Ah chocolate girl, well you're looking like something I want
Ah and your little Asian friend well, well she can come if she wants
I want all the self conscious girls who try to hide who they are with makeup
You know it’s the girl with a frown with the tight pants I really want to shake up
Hey, carrot juice, I wanna squeeze you away until you bleed
(finding out true love is blind)
And your vanilla friend, well she looks like something I need
(finding out true love is blind)
I want miss little smart girl with your glasses and all your books
(finding out true love is blind)
And I want the stupid girl who gives me all those dirty looks

This song would have made absolutely no sense to Stephen Griffin because the songwriter doesn’t say anything about the girl playing the violin in the green velvet dress. It is love at first sight or more correctly love at the first stroke of her bow. The music has slipped a blindfold over his eyes and left him trembling with the possibilities of love.

After the death of his mother and sister in a car accident, both Stephen and his father are left shattered and hollowed out. They are sad, soul sad. Gloom hangs like black smoke over everything they do, over everything they feel, strangling hope and turning joy to dust. The father is willing himself to get cancer, and Stephen is merely going through the motions of living.

”There in the sunlight she looked at the pale man with the white face and thin black hair. He was transparent. There was about him such a pitiful shrinking from life…” as if he were expecting the final hammer blow to fall at any moment. By the fickleness of fate or maybe for this moment chaos had moved on to other victims, Stephen attends a concert, and for the first time hears the music of Gabriella Castoldi. She is lost as well, an Italian, who discovered her poet boyfriend didn’t love her anymore and allowed herself to be abandoned in Ireland.

I have always been cynical about love at first sight. I usually refer to it as lust at first sight because it can only be based on how physically attractive we find this other person. Love, to me, always has to be built on more solid foundations than just an attraction to symmetrical features or an hourglass figure or broad shoulders. Niall Williams, in the land of fairies and sprites and leprechauns, almost convinces me that love at first sight is more like a cosmic meeting of old souls that recognize each other over and over again. Stephen morphs into Stephano and tries to become everything Gabriella needs. He is so needy and clingy that his attentiveness threatens to smother the fragile flame of early love. She is his life raft in the middle of an ocean of despair.

When we fall in love, it is always interesting how clearly we see the rest of our life. When Stephano walks into the job he despises, it is with renewed purpose, bolstered by the gauze of love that has wound tendrils of steely determination into his heart and soul.

”I care about the history and the few who want to learn it. But what I have discovered is this: it’s not my life. It’s someone else’s life that I’m living, that I just fell into, the way people take wrong turns and don’t know it and just keep going because it’s too hard and frightening not to, and then they find themselves years later in some place they never wanted to be, with the regrets eating them up like cancers.”

I am a product of being trapped by my own successes. I never wanted to be a circulation manager, and even when I took the job, I intended to only do it for five years at the most and then move on to something more interesting. I turned out to be pretty good at figuring out the problems inherent with the job and expanded the role. The company needed me and appreciated my efforts. I started making more money. At one point, I even felt confident in demanding more money, and the next thing I knew I was...stuck. I then doubled down and took advantage of an opportunity to become one of the owners of the company. I thought I’d be happier, but the thing of it is, I was never supposed to be a circulation manager. I’m living someone else’s life, and I’m sure many of the people who will end up reading this review will also be living a life they were never supposed to.

Reading books is a way to escape the compromised life I’ve allowed myself to be trapped in. Writing reviews is a way for me to slip off the harness, to frolic with words, and even to convince myself for a while that I’m a real writer.

Someday, maybe I, like Stephen can have the courage to break away and reach out for the ghost of myself that has proven so elusive.

This is why we read fiction, isn’t it?

If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

I made a terrific spontaneous purchase when I downloaded
....."As It Is In Heaven", by Niall Williams. It was HEAVENLY!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU ....*Jeffrey*! It was the Perfect Book at the perfect time!!!!!!

I was 'still' bathing in the experience of "The Heart's Invisible Furies", by John Boyle.
I couldn't for the life of me settle down with the next book.
I read the beginnings of around 10 books in my house......not even checking my kindle downloads. None of them were what I was looking for.
MY HUNGER for the RIGHT BOOK felt crucial.

I had read Jeffrey's review yesterday of "As It Is In Heaven", loved it, teased him like I do, but a light didn't go off until very early this morning before I was out of bed-- that "oh my God, I know what to read next".
I felt a strong pull to this book. It felt urgent! I still wanted to be in Ireland. I became even more excited at the thought of this novel 'mixing' the Irish and Italian! Dublin and Venice. I was salivating!!!!
It's amazing how fast and easy it is to spend $9.99 before brushing your teeth.

The story pulls you in instantly. The writing is gorgeous- the story keeps spinning, and we are hanging onto every word. Such a lovely writer Niall Williams is!!!!

Don't laugh.... but 'this American', got excited just the mention of "Grafton Street".... not far from 'College Green' where crowds gathered around Barack Obama in 2011.
I had read so much about Grafton Street...(and about),....in Dublin....from John Boyne's 'Furies', I felt like I was 'home'!
and.....'home' is FANTASTIC!!!!

This is my first book by Niall Williams.... and boy, he's a natural storyteller!!! I can't believe this book isn't more popular! It's page turning engaging, timeless. I'm 'sure' all my friends would like it!!!!!

The opening sentence is powerful:
"There are only three great puzzles in the world, the puzzle of love, the puzzle of death, and between each of these and part of both of them, the puzzle of God".

"Philip Griffin lost his wife, Anne, and his 10 year old daughter, Mary, in a car accident years ago.
Twenty years later, his remaining son , Stephen, age 32 - became a history teacher and moved away from Dublin to the west. Philip and Griffin were both alone in the world. The death from the accident of Ann and Mary dominated and shaped both these men's entire lives.
Griffin came home to visit his father one weekend a month. Philip blames himself for the accident -which was ludicrous- he was nowhere near the accident, but in Philip's mind, he stayed alive for Stephen. Philip endured suffering. He felt his pain was a type of cleansing... and that Mary and Anne were in heaven waiting for him.
Why - why - why..... do people spend their entire lives 'choosing' to suffer? I thought about this - because I think my mother suffered for years, the rest of her life, after my father died. I thought maybe it was a 'Jewish' thing?... but 'cleansing'? Well, I wasn't sure how suffering for 20 years was cleansing - as in healing?.....but - I'm still thinking about it.

There was a scene I found captivating between 'father & son. Stephen came home for the weekend to see his father. Music was playing as he walked in the door - 'Puccini', 'La Boheme'.
No words were were exchanged.
"The sorrowfulnes of the aria was cool and delicious;
it was beyond their capability of telling, and while it played, father and son lingered in its brief and beautiful grief, each thinking of different women".
Father and son played chess that night - in the dark - with only a light from a low table lamp from the hallway. This is something they did during all their monthly visits.
But something was different about this night - Philip knew that Stephen's heart was filled with turbulence-- by the way he was moving his chess pieces. They didn't speak...but Philip could tell the depth of his son's grief, anger, and frustration by the moves he made..... in the same way other men beat a ball with a racket, releasing
demons. I was curious to meet the woman Stephen was thinking about....but during that all night chess game - actually many games - all that Stephen loss, which was unusual... I thought back to my own obsessive chess playing days.
When I was a student at Cal...( young and foolish)... I took a 'ski' day at Squaw Valley in Placer County, the day 'before' my last final of the semester. Two students and one Professor in the car... about a 4.5 hour car ride each way. I skied all day. On my last run - ( "just one more"), I went flying downhill - turning a corner - I kept 'flying' and crashed. With a broken - spiral fractured of my tibia and a shattered ankle - the doctor wasn't going to release me from the hospital unless the hospital in Berkeley would take me the second my 'drivers' got back to town. I was 'not' going to stay in that strange hospital far away from friends and family with no drive home. So --in while in pain - in a crowded car we make it back to Berkeley. My car mates dropped me off at Alta Bates Hospital at midnight. The professor had to give an exam the next day. I was suppose to take one...... obviously, I never showed up for the final.
Stuck in bed in that hospital for a week.
For the next 7 months - and 3 different full length plaster casts on my right leg--
Chess became my 'drug-of-choice'. I became an-'around-the-clock' chess-junkie. I played when I didn't feel like talking - when sad, when angry, when frustrated, lonely, and afraid.
I played when I felt determined, strong, weak, stoned a few times, and often played in the dark late through the night until early morning. I never asked my house mate - and chess buddy, Jess, an engineering grad student, if he knew the depths of my moods by the 'way' I played chess. I'm guessing he did .... and was kind enough to stay quiet.

Back to "As It Is In Heaven".....
We meet Gabriella Castoldi, a passionate violinist. Stephen can't think of anything else but Gabriella. His life is changed forever. It's a beautiful love story --- old fashion in ways. Neither are without long term issues.... each have been hurt & broken ... but towards the end.... without being mushy... this story ends inspiring!

At every turn -I found this novel exquisite....from the landscape of Ireland --[Kerry and Clare feels like a character in itself] - and Venice, to side stories about the sins of Purgatory--the poetic language creating moods of broken hearts - grief- loss -despair -redemption- nature -music- laughter - and love.

A book I can easily recommend- with confidence- to all my friends!!!!

*Thanks again Jeffrey! Just what I was looking for!!!!

[Cheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

”Dublin was asleep beneath its streetlights, the autumn night foggy with dreams, while son and father played on. They did not look up from the board, nor did Philip remark when the scent of the lilies arose and filled the room. He breathed their perfume and kept his gaze fixed on the queen, recalling how Anne, too, had smelled of those flowers, and realizing there and then that life repeats itself over and over, and that, though the game might change, its patterns were the same, his son’s loving was his own, and it would be morning before Stephen exhausted himself telling of it and fell across the chessboard asleep.”

Years of living together since Philip’s wife - Stephen’s mother – had passed in a car accident with Stephen’s young sister’s life taken as well, both victims of a drunken priest’s recklessness who walked away with barely a bruise to show for the damage he’d done to this family, a night that had left the two of them emotionally bruised, and eventually emotionally, and physically distant.

The father going through his days bitter for the opportunities he lost to be a better father and husband, regretful for the nights he hid behind his newspaper until it was too late to tuck them in and tell them goodnight, it was too late to tell them he loved them. It was too late for too much, all the things he had not done. He came to believe that his failings were so numerous that God had no choice but to rebuke him in this way.

”He breathed the death in the living room air, the sorrow that lingered in the stairs, until it got inside him. He never knew that a small man could carry so much grief and was amazed that the years did not diminish it but amplified it, until the day three years ago when he had woken up and realized with a huge sigh of peace that at least he was dying. “

And so they lived this way, Philip quietly removing himself from life, and Stephen, never having remembered him any other way, quietly goes his own way, by now a grown man who is a bit awkward and shy, a teacher living on the west side of Ireland.

As if by a miracle, Stephen finds himself at a concert one night, one that features a violinist, Gabriella Castoldi. A concert that changes his life, as though he’d been put under a spell the moment she picked up her bow to play.

”He, too, had been taken from himself by the music; the music offered an invisible opening to another place, and through it, like a secret river, flowed the frustrations, sorrows, and ceaseless longings of everyone there. For each of them, it became the music of themselves.”

After the concert, he stops in a music shop and buys the only copy of any Vivaldi music there, The Four Seasons unable to leave the music completely behind, he brings it home the only way he knows how.

“He had something tangible of the evening and felt an easement of the pressure of desire, knowing that once the music was playing, once he could sit and listen to it, Gabriella Castoldi would be with him again.”

As time passes, lives will connect and some will even re-connect, and their stories will become one love story that encompasses all the different ways of love, and the ways that love is shown, shared, and shaped, through music.

This was quietly beautiful, and, for me, a lovely trip down memory lane, re-visiting through his travels, so many of the places in Ireland that I’ve been and long to be once again. Delightful occasions of happenstance, some delicious prose, and a captivating story, this is a story of love in its many forms and how that changes as we change. A parent’s love for a child, how that relationship changes as the child becomes a man, a man’s love for his father, and his love for a woman who has opened his soul as though she held the key. The way that love changes our vision and the way we see ourselves, how love emboldens us to take on the challenge of a new way of looking at life, at our past choices, and the ones available to us that may change our future. Enhanced by a sprinkling of magical realism, more of a hint than a heavy dose, I was swept away to Ireland once again.

[JimZ · Rating 1 out of 5]

It has been a while since I did a DNF but still wrote a review. Because in general I do not believe it is fair to pan a book and give it a 1-star rating without reading the whole thing, but I gave it my best shot on this one…putting it down twice and picking it up with the thought I could gut it out, but I just couldn’t. I made it through 166 pages of this 310-page book.

The writing oftentimes was contrived. The way the characters acted…what can I say? With many novels, one has to set aside some degree of belief at times, but this was not, as far as I know, supposed to be a fantastical novel. It, I thought, was to have believable characters. There wasn’t a damn person in this novel who was believable. These people do not exist. Or if they do, don’t bring me near them. I don’t want to meet them.

Stephen Griffin: people can tell he is smitten and in love because his clothes hang on him like a scarecrow. Is that a sign of being in love? He goes to listen to a concert with a 4-player ensemble and falls instantly in love with the violinist and for all intensive purposes starts to stalk her. Rather than her run away, she invited him to take a walk on the seashore, and then says, “hug me” and then they sleep with one another. I know there are one-night stands and I pass no judgement on that, but this was supposed to be a love story.

Stephen’s father, Philip, intuits he has cancer (he can just feel it in his bowels and intestines) and when he goes to see an oncologist yep sure enough, he has the big C. The oncologist goes to Philip’s house and tells him another doctor that Philip knows has died. Who in the hell makes house calls anymore? And then, get this, he spends hours that night playing chess with Philip. And then there is a green-grocer and she can tell at a glance that Stephen was in love and what he needed to eat were some plums. The characters were ludicrous, and the writing was too.

I have read four of Williams’ novels ‘Four Letters of Love’ (1997) [4 stars from me], ‘John’ (2016) [2 stars], ‘History of the Rain’ (2014) [5 stars], and ‘This is Happiness’ (2019) [5 stars]. So overall I really like Niall Williams’ writing. I dunno…maybe it was just me, and other people loved this book. I have yet to read reviews on this one —so often I am an outlier, I won’t be surprised if I am in left field on this one. So be it.

Reviews
• From a blog site...ha! S/he agrees with me! https://readingmattersblog.com/2007/0...
• https://www.irishtimes.com/news/as-it...
• https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-...

[Betsy Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

How to describe Niall Williams's heavenly voice and point of view? I think the only way to do it is to present it as one: the voice and point of view are identical and they come from a place that transcends but is also intimate with everyday human life.

As It Is in Heaven is my third Williams book, and I've read this voice, as well as many of the same characters, in parts of his other books, but in this book, the entire story is told in this angelic, romantic, melancholic moan. Communication happens without words—through a father and son’s chess game, through music, through a gesture. And, for me, it is more real than mundane words or reality, so I hesitate to call it mystical. This point of view sees and describes everything in utterly original and beautiful language. What’s ugly is stunning. Williams’s voice whispers a matrix of connecting energy between all people and conveys the movements of events as the result of this energy. And some characters in this book see and understand life from this point of view, and to have this told is breathtaking. Or breath-starting. Or just breath.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lush, sweeping,poetic love story..between father and son, and between a young man caught up in the magical fever of love at first sight and the girl who has captured his heart. So much is said under the surface...words never used...and yet there is a mystic beauty to Mr Williams story telling.... slow and deliberate, deep and tender.At times I could feel the electricity in the air. One thing for certain..Vivaldi floated thru the air as I shared their world.

[Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hi. My name is Gloria.
I'm a Niall Williams addict.
If you don't hear from me for awhile it's because I'm slinking off to go and quietly devour everything this man has ever written.
See you on the other side...

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just what the doctor ordered: a beautiful, mystical story of love, loss, redemption and rebirth- complete with the dreamy atmospheres of Venice and the West of Ireland. And much to my heart's relief- a happy ending. Or rather, a beginning filled with hope and joy.

______________________
I started this last week and stopped because the opening pages were too filled with grief and loss- more than I could stand at the present moment.

But I picked it up again last night, after abandoning another Irish-set horror-mystery book that left me feeling really icky.

It was like sinking into the soft embrace of a favorite arm chair set in the middle of a green meadow: soothing, invigorating, life-affirming, charming, safe. Williams writes prose like poetry with such affection for and joy in his characters and his settings.

Knowing the author, there is no guarantee of a happy ending, but there is certain to be a fair amount of mysticism and legend that is so quintessentially Irish. And love- Williams is a master of the love story.

[Cynthia Heinrichs · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous read. I'm not one for love stories, and sometimes this jaded heart finds Williams' prose overblown and I want to roll my eyes the way I might when I find someone telling a story with high drama, more for their own pleasure in hearing themselves talk than for the entertainment of their hearer, but I keep going (because I can't help myself, his words are so delicious) and then I find myself reading his prose aloud and forgiving how openly he speaks of love and I'm turning over the corners of pages so I can go back and reread them later(I never do this!) because he has described some feelings so perfectly, just as I've felt them, and I am in awe and have to acknowledge that he's writing about something that is outside my comfort zone. Love, despair dashed by hope, all that beautiful jazz.
And Ireland. In this book he takes us to the west of Ireland and, there again, he speaks true. It's a magical place, not just physically, but in the people.
This is my second Niall Williams book. I'm ready for a third.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my 5th books of Niall Williams. His first four had to do with the "Making a go of it" on the west coast of Ireland. This is his first work of fiction that I have read. He is an extraordinary wordsmith; his words have a lightness that almost float off the page to evoke a feeling of atmosphere - the sounds and smells and the look of a place are all captured through the essence of light. The story itself is a beautifully and artfully told tale of love - the love of a man for his dead wife; the love of a father for his son; the love of a man for a woman. Somehow, this story is told through nuances that waft like the mist and catch the air and shoot like raw energy. It's an interesting and captivating thing that Mr. Williams does. What it means for the reader is that you need to be patient. You need to allow the story to seep in to your skin too, which it will if you give it a chance.

Having read Mr. Williams' autobiographical accounts, I recognized some of themes that he and his wife, Christine Breen, struggled with and there was a character that made me think of one of the Williams' neighbors who was a key player in the autobiographies. He draws heavily on the landscape of Clare and Kerry so that it becomes a character in the book that does as much of the story telling as the human interplay, and helps to ground the story too. Finally, my copy of this book is heavily marked. It's quote worthy, especially on his thoughts of the complicated manner in which love finds a way to heal all sorts of wounded relationships and people and is often imbued with a heavy dose of what can only be described as magic. And we all know that magic has a star role in matters of love! It's a wonderful book and has made me feel happy!

[Juliet Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful love story between a withdrawn Irish teacher and a passionate Italian violinist, who carries the scent of lilies with her. But the real wonder of the book is in the details – the father and son communicating silently through their chess games, the tailor who can read a man’s health through the fit of his clothes, the doctors who believe they are fakes because they cannot heal the soul, the magic realism in the way the music transports everyone who hears it. Even the minor characters are memorable. Ten stars and a box of hankies.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

A charming love story set in Ireland in which a socially awkward teacher with tragedy in his past woos and wins a beautiful Italian violinist. Williams’s second novel. As a massive fan of his most recent novels (This is Happiness and A History of the Rain are among my all-time favourite books), it was interesting to see his early prose style here, in a book written 25 years ago, and try to discover the seeds of what we might call High Williams, the very amusing, long-drawn-out, ultra-Irish sentences concealing depths of emotion—you know: you’ll laugh, you’ll cry. But I have to admit High Williams is not to everyone’s taste. My book club debated lynching me for having added This is Happiness to our reading list.

[Emma Wiebe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is lovely, once again well done Niall. His writing brings to life beautiful simple human moments that seriously bring a tear to my eye and serve as a reminder of the wonderfulness of things that can seem meaningless. At times the story was slow moving and I was like okay just tell me what happens next please, but overall I thought it was a heartwarming story of people in love and loss.

"He blinked at the light that came through the mountains, and drove on into them, feeling only the central most basic and human emotion that makes meaning of all our days: the urgency to love." <3

@Devan, you won't like it stay away

[Dhanaraj Rajan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wavered between 3 and 4 stars and at the end decided on 3 stars.

The reason why I wanted 4 stars:
The novel is well written, I mean the prose is apt to the plot. It is a love story filled with tinges of tragedy and simple beliefs in hope. The prose was simply lovely when it was dealing with the love story and was subtly emotional as it was tracing the lines of tragedy and was very soothing when it was about the simple hopes that the life would turn out well. The language carried the emotions of the story. This is a hard feat to achieve and Niall Williams has done it.

The reason for the 3 stars:
The plot is very simple. It is about a love story between an Irish teacher and the Italian violinist. It has also a sub plot - the relationship between the dying father and his son, the Irish teacher who is finding love for the first time in his life. The plot can be very simple and that can still make the novel very different. And that does not happen here. It starts as a simple love story and ends as a stereotypical simple love story. The story too moves at times very slow owing to the descriptions of the mood and scene. In fact the realization that some of such descriptions already appeared earlier in the novel makes the novel and the progress of the plot all the more slow.

A simple love story written in an angelic prose. If you are a person who believes in the stereotype -according to which a boy meets a girl and eventually they both fall in love, but then owing to some past or other reasons they find themselves not fit to be together and, at the end the love triumphs and they get united - then this is the story for you.

[Ginger Bensman · Rating 5 out of 5]

As It Is In Heaven is a beautiful mystical novel brimming with ravishing prose about a widowed and dying father’s love and hopes for his son. Stephen, his quiet unassuming school teacher son’s world is transformed by a chance encounter and his subsequent pursuit of a lovely Italian violinist. (Or, perhaps there is no such thing as chance, only kismet.) The book is a tour de force that captures the landscapes of Ireland and Venice—and the human heart. I fell in love with William’s characters and his seamless use of magical realism, but most of all his use of language. This book goes right to the top of my list of favorite novels—sometimes I cried just because the prose is so exquisite.

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Williams but this is one of his earlier works,and ir shows,way too treacly. What's wonder and lyrical writing in Rain or Happiness,is just ugh here.

[Gerard Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Williams first novel The Four Letters of Love, and looked forward to this, his second. In many ways I found it even better. The unashamed romanticism remains, and the magical realism, if anything, increases... As ever, I loved Williams' writing, but I was also drawn into the story and found it very satisfying. Perhaps I too am an unashamed romantic... I am certainly an unashamed fan of this writer.

[John Casey · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐
I discovered Niall Williams fairly recently and he quickly became a favorite, so I was really disappointed in the slog of getting through this book. It's just overwritten and not very compelling. Williams still writes beautifully here but he insists on proving it incessantly. It's just tootoo as they say.

[Jessa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Everytime I picked up this book and tried to read it i felt like I was torturing myself. After about 75 pages I skimmed through the rest of the book and got through it in a few hours and still didn't miss anything. Didn't really like the characters and the story was so slow and boring.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was able to skip pages and pages, losing nothing except extremely flowery writing. I liked some of the characters; the story moved too slowly. The end was unbelievable, with the use of the "dying, but actually it was just a bad dream" device. Very weak and I shan't be reading any more by him.

[Mike Finn · Rating 3 out of 5]

His undoubted gift was in need of some curtailing for me. Just too much of a good thing in its overlong elaboration of feelings and perceptions.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

The man is so Irish! This is not only a love story but a story about Love, and it resonates with rich, beautiful language.

He captures the memory/reality of Irish history, the belief — even conviction — that the “line” between “this world” and the next is thin, very thin in places, and even occasionally permeable, in which thoughts, memories, and persons can pass and communicate, even if such communication is befogged by luminescence that for along time remains unidentifiable.

Williams believes that life most definitely has meaning, but that it is found. To only in rational thought, but experienced in the gifts of mystery that we sometimes have the courage to share with one another.

More than most, his books are filled with how we give the mystery and glory of life to each other.

[Joni Janice Mielke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lovely, tragic, beautifully atmospheric story that, despite being grounded in the countries and climates in which it is set, is all about the characters that grow on you and come to life with richness, complexity and depth. Simply put, they are about as human as you can get. Prone to illness, depression and pain as well as the deeply moving and explosively powerful depths of passionate love, compassion and generosity of spirit. This is a beautifully written book. Tough to read at times - I had to put it down a couple of times - but so worth picking up again.

[Matt Pitts · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and captivating story of grief, love, and hope. I loved encountering the perspective of a tailor, but even more than that the passages on music, its beauty and power, were wonderful.

I keep thinking as I read Williams older work after reading his most recent that I’m going to stumble on a dud, but so far I’ve simply been amazed how consistently beautiful his work is.

[Joann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again Williams has drawn me into an Irish village and its residents. The pace of this book is slower than some of his others and if it had been the first of his that I read, I might not be so much in love with his writing. That being said, still a good read.

[Iain Snelling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little disappointed in this book. The
writing is beautiful but at time’s just a little too purple, and there isn’t quite enough plot to sustain interest. It took a while to finish the book. The character of Gabriella is a little underdeveloped and so the narrative is limited. The reason this affected my enjoyment is that although love is blind and all that the story was just a bit implausible. More depth to Gabriella could have made it me realistic.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a lovely love story, set mostly in the west of Ireland but with occasional scenes in Dublin and in Venice. Williams' inimical prose is on full display throughout, and if you enjoy prose that sings you could do worse than read this book. The reasons I did not give it a higher rating are that it is about one-third again too long for the story line to hold up; that is, I found it rather repetitive and selfsame toward the middle of the book. In addition I thought the novel veered a little too close to being overtly sentimental, and found myself not quite believing the magic implied in Steven's love for Gabriella and her "go away closer" dealings with him. Williams does a good job depicting the madness of love, its irresistible intoxication, but much of the subsequent plot development has a bit of a fairy tale feel to it. Kerry fares rather badly compared to Clare in the provincial party-pooper category, but given Williams' other homages to that wind-blasted western county, this was not terribly surprising (maybe I am defensive of Kenmare having had a lovely stay there myself). A good book, but not of the same caliber as Four Letters of Love.

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This gets off to a very promising start: "There are only three great puzzles in the world, the puzzle of love, the puzzle of death, and, between each of these and part of both of them, the puzzle of God. God is the greatest puzzle of all." Although the book substantively wrestles with all three issues, it's not all that profound, despite a lot of over-the-top prose. At times it reads almost like a fantasy, but one very grounded in the mundane lives & landscapes of two very likable characters--an Irish history teacher whose mother & sister died in a car crash when he was a child, and the Italian violinist he falls in love with who has led an equally tragic life of loss. Their love--and music--redeems them both. God plays no role in the redemption, despite making frequent appearances in the form of very profane superstitions. It IS a good story that's much more enjoyable to read than my comments here would suggest.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beyond words. This book so beautifully describes what it is to be human. The mysteries of how the past impacts the future and how only healing that comes from the slow, mundaneness of loving and living brings you fully into the present, and slowly trust and hope is formed again. This book is worth your time. I'll re-read, no doubt.

Beautiful writing. I clung onto every sentence.

[Simon Bendle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Feel bad about giving this book only two stars. Williams is an intelligent writer and his novel has its moments. But this magical realism lark is really not my cup of tea at all, and after about two hundred pages I’d had more than my fill.