What do you think?
Rate this book
Time of the Child
From the author of This Is Happiness, a compassionate, life-affirming novel about the Christmas season that transforms the small Irish town of Faha.
Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from the town. His eldest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father's shadow, and remains there, having missed one chance at love – and passed up another 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.
Set over the course of one December in the same village as Williams' beloved This Is Happiness, Time of the Child is a tender return to Faha for readers who know its charms, and a heartwarming welcome to new readers entering for the very first time.
Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from the town. His eldest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father's shadow, and remains there, having missed one chance at love – and passed up another 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.
Set over the course of one December in the same village as Williams' beloved This Is Happiness, Time of the Child is a tender return to Faha for readers who know its charms, and a heartwarming welcome to new readers entering for the very first time.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published October 24, 2024
4243 people are currently reading
41402 people want to read
About the author
Niall Williams
36 books1,837 followersNiall 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,008 reviews
December 20, 2024
My Reviews Can Also Be Found On:
The Book Review Crew Blog
This book was just okay for me. As much as I enjoyed the lyrical writing the child of the title didn't show up until the 40% mark and that was a disappointment, it was more about getting to know the residents of Faha. The story is very slow and not very exciting. I would say this book is for a lover of words more than that of plot or characters. The plot does start to pick up once the child arrives and I did like the poetic writing but it made it a drag. This story takes place in December of 1962 but seems further in the past to me because they’re just getting televisions, phones and some even electricity. The writing is very verbose and very descriptive. I usually like that but with this one, it lost my attention along the way and I could only read a little bit at a time.
I understand the high rating. It’s a brilliant book but far too dry and slow for my taste. I found it very contemplative, like reading a diary and being inside the minds of Ronnie and Dr. Jack. This is my first book by the author, and I think I'm too stupid to appreciate it so I won't be reading any more of his other works.
The Book Review Crew Blog
This book was just okay for me. As much as I enjoyed the lyrical writing the child of the title didn't show up until the 40% mark and that was a disappointment, it was more about getting to know the residents of Faha. The story is very slow and not very exciting. I would say this book is for a lover of words more than that of plot or characters. The plot does start to pick up once the child arrives and I did like the poetic writing but it made it a drag. This story takes place in December of 1962 but seems further in the past to me because they’re just getting televisions, phones and some even electricity. The writing is very verbose and very descriptive. I usually like that but with this one, it lost my attention along the way and I could only read a little bit at a time.
I understand the high rating. It’s a brilliant book but far too dry and slow for my taste. I found it very contemplative, like reading a diary and being inside the minds of Ronnie and Dr. Jack. This is my first book by the author, and I think I'm too stupid to appreciate it so I won't be reading any more of his other works.
March 23, 2025
Oh my, what can I say about my return to the fictional village of Faha in December 1962. Niall Williams’ previous book about the Irish village of Faha was This Is Happiness. While embracing the advent season, this beautiful book, Time of the Child, was a perfect book to ground me in values and faith in this Christmas season. Niall Williams is a treasure with his luminous and beautiful prose and truly one of our greatest storytellers. I cannot imagine anything better than being lost in the beautiful and poignant prose of Niall Williams in Ireland.
In this Advent season in Faha, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Doctor Jack Troy and his daughter Veronica’s lives are upended as a child is left in their care. It is this child that alters life, not only in the life of the Troys, but in all of Faha as everyone is forced to examine their values in this iconic Irish village. The Midnight Mass was a beautiful part of the book that struck every part of my heart. And the ensuing words will move you, especially in this Christmas season. Happy Holidays to all in this joyous season.
“For children, childhood is timeless. It is always the present. Everything is in the present tense. Of course, they have memories. Of course, time shifts a little for them and Christmas comes round in the end. But they don’t feel it. Today is what they feel, and when they say ‘When I grow up,’ there is always an edge of disbelief—how could they ever be other than who they are?
In this Advent season in Faha, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Doctor Jack Troy and his daughter Veronica’s lives are upended as a child is left in their care. It is this child that alters life, not only in the life of the Troys, but in all of Faha as everyone is forced to examine their values in this iconic Irish village. The Midnight Mass was a beautiful part of the book that struck every part of my heart. And the ensuing words will move you, especially in this Christmas season. Happy Holidays to all in this joyous season.
December 27, 2024
I came back to Faha, the same quiet, rainy Irish village from This Is Happiness and History of the Rain. This is a place where not much seems to happen each day as life goes on - until it does and the people here become part of an extraordinary story of love and the meaning of family and belonging when an infant is found. A wonderful story for the Christmas season or any season for that matter. Niall Williams is a writer I recommend if you haven’t already discovered his moving and meaningful novels.
I received a copy of this from Bloomsbury through Edelweiss.
I received a copy of this from Bloomsbury through Edelweiss.
July 26, 2025
In a Nutshell: A companion novel to "This is Happiness" (TIH). Same setting and era, different key characters. Even more slow-paced and meandering than the earlier novel. The writing is just as stunning, but the narration didn't work as well for me this time around. Still, a good option for prose lovers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plot Preview:
This book is not exactly a sequel. While the events of this novel are set four years after the end of TIH, the plot is independent enough to work as a standalone story. There is a little recap provided wherever the reader needs a reference of what happened in the earlier novel. However, for a few characters who make a reappearance in this story, their background is available in detail only in the first book. As such, if you are a stickler for detail, you might like to begin with TIH before venturing into this story.
This time, I was even better prepared for the unstructured narration as I already had first-hand experience of the author’s writing style while reading TIH. But unlike that novel, which was presented in the form of a septuagenarian’s first-person reminiscences about his teen years in Faha, this book is written in a more generic third-person POV, which shifts across multiple characters and even multiple timelines. As such, I found it tougher to forgive the meandering narration this time around. With no firm narrator, there was no justification as to why the story had to take such a serpentine and disjointed journey to the finish line.
Another issue is that, while the book regularly informs us that “a child was found” on a particular night, the actual appearance of the child in the main plot happens only after the one-third mark. So the hundred-or-so pages of build-up can get a bit tedious, all the more as the book keeps reciting disparate incidents from “the day it happened”, but the day seems never-ending!
Those are my only two complaints, but both are relatively major ones.
I liked the three main characters of this book: Dr. Troy, Ronnie, and their teen neighbour Jack. Each of them carries some or the other pain from their pasts, which doesn’t allow them to immerse fully in the happiness of the present. Ronnie was especially amazing, and I love that a male author could create such a compelling and relatable female character and even provide her arc the perfect ending.
Just as in TIH, the characters of this book feel utterly real, like people we might even know in actual life. That grounded approach helps us stay invested in the “plot” even when there’s so little of it. For a character-driven book, such compelling characters are a must. Yet again, Faha the place is as good as a character, with its belief system being the instigator of several events.
The plot is just as wafer-thin as in TIH, but as I said, I was better prepared for it this time around. While the arrival of electricity was the driving force in the first book, the appearance of the child is the key catalyst in this one. The idea of someone stepping in to take care of an abandoned child might lead you to certain assumptions about how the plot will go. But most of these guesses would be inapplicable to this story. I was pleasantly surprised by how the author chose to drive that particular arc ahead.
The writing is just as pleasing and soul-satisfying. The metaphors, the descriptions, the vocabulary, the thought-provoking one-liners – all a literary treat. I think the first book fared a little better in this regard because of its narrator being the source of much wisdom, but this book also has plenty to reflect upon.
All in all, this book is a treat for the prose lover, and a test of the patience for the plot lover. If you are all about the journey and don’t care where you are going as long as you are moving, this novel ought to be a delight.
Recommended but not to all. This book is for literary fiction lovers who like character-driven, prose-rich, plot-less storytelling. If possible, try to read ‘This is Happiness’ prior to this book, though they are both standalones.
3.5 stars, rounding up because the writing and Ronnie deserve it.
My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for providing the DRC of “Time of the Child” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
|| My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || Facebook ||
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plot Preview:
1962. Faha, four years after the events of "This is Happiness". Doctor Jack Troy is still in Faha, but of his three daughters, only his eldest, Ronnie, still stays with him and helps him with his duties. As Advent begins, a teenaged boy from their neighbourhood turns up at their doorstep with a baby in his arms. With no idea about who abandoned the baby, the Troys have to accept responsibility for the little charge, with Ronnie doing so gladly. But the good doctor knows that there needs to be one immediate change in their life if Ronnie wants to care for the baby. She must get married!
The story comes to us in the third-person perspective of several characters.
This book is not exactly a sequel. While the events of this novel are set four years after the end of TIH, the plot is independent enough to work as a standalone story. There is a little recap provided wherever the reader needs a reference of what happened in the earlier novel. However, for a few characters who make a reappearance in this story, their background is available in detail only in the first book. As such, if you are a stickler for detail, you might like to begin with TIH before venturing into this story.
This time, I was even better prepared for the unstructured narration as I already had first-hand experience of the author’s writing style while reading TIH. But unlike that novel, which was presented in the form of a septuagenarian’s first-person reminiscences about his teen years in Faha, this book is written in a more generic third-person POV, which shifts across multiple characters and even multiple timelines. As such, I found it tougher to forgive the meandering narration this time around. With no firm narrator, there was no justification as to why the story had to take such a serpentine and disjointed journey to the finish line.
Another issue is that, while the book regularly informs us that “a child was found” on a particular night, the actual appearance of the child in the main plot happens only after the one-third mark. So the hundred-or-so pages of build-up can get a bit tedious, all the more as the book keeps reciting disparate incidents from “the day it happened”, but the day seems never-ending!
Those are my only two complaints, but both are relatively major ones.
I liked the three main characters of this book: Dr. Troy, Ronnie, and their teen neighbour Jack. Each of them carries some or the other pain from their pasts, which doesn’t allow them to immerse fully in the happiness of the present. Ronnie was especially amazing, and I love that a male author could create such a compelling and relatable female character and even provide her arc the perfect ending.
Just as in TIH, the characters of this book feel utterly real, like people we might even know in actual life. That grounded approach helps us stay invested in the “plot” even when there’s so little of it. For a character-driven book, such compelling characters are a must. Yet again, Faha the place is as good as a character, with its belief system being the instigator of several events.
The plot is just as wafer-thin as in TIH, but as I said, I was better prepared for it this time around. While the arrival of electricity was the driving force in the first book, the appearance of the child is the key catalyst in this one. The idea of someone stepping in to take care of an abandoned child might lead you to certain assumptions about how the plot will go. But most of these guesses would be inapplicable to this story. I was pleasantly surprised by how the author chose to drive that particular arc ahead.
The writing is just as pleasing and soul-satisfying. The metaphors, the descriptions, the vocabulary, the thought-provoking one-liners – all a literary treat. I think the first book fared a little better in this regard because of its narrator being the source of much wisdom, but this book also has plenty to reflect upon.
All in all, this book is a treat for the prose lover, and a test of the patience for the plot lover. If you are all about the journey and don’t care where you are going as long as you are moving, this novel ought to be a delight.
Recommended but not to all. This book is for literary fiction lovers who like character-driven, prose-rich, plot-less storytelling. If possible, try to read ‘This is Happiness’ prior to this book, though they are both standalones.
3.5 stars, rounding up because the writing and Ronnie deserve it.
My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for providing the DRC of “Time of the Child” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
|| My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || Facebook ||
June 5, 2025
I am on a quest for grace. It seems harder to come by in this grasping, cynical, anxious time. As a person of faith, I carry a specific definition of grace in my heart, but I long to see more of it in the world, to engage in it, to set it loose as a verb, noun, adjective. There is a bottomless pit in our souls that we try to fill with happiness. I wonder if we wouldn't be better served by seeking something outside of ourselves. That something which looks an awful lot like grace.
As a writer and reader of fiction, I believe in the power of story to show us what the things we long for, struggle to define and to embody, look like in action. And few writers can release the shining light of grace in their words with the same sweet and powerful beauty as Niall Williams.
Returning to Faha, the fictional County Clare village on the banks of the River Shannon that was the setting of the novels This Is Happiness and History of the Rain, Time of the Child layers social change with private grief—a theme I find present in so many contemporary Irish novels. In a nation that moved from medieval to modern, from poverty to soaring wealth in a heartbeat, all while wrestling with the generational trauma of famine, occupation, civil war, and an identity wrapped up in religious doctrine that amounted to theocracy, political is personal in Ireland like few other Western societies. Yet Niall Williams layers this cultural complexity into a story of compassion and fierce mother love. A Christmas Miracle story, to boot.
A rural doctor, widowed and mourning his true, unrequited, second-chance love. A grown daughter, devoted to her father but perhaps sacrificing the best years of her life to remain by his side, secretly reading Edna O'Brien's banned Country Girls. A young boy weighted down by an adult's burden of guilt and shame. A village of characters shaped by their interdependence, their isolation, and by traditions that are slipping toward irrelevance as Ireland slips into the 1960s. They all may have gone on indefinitely, slowly eroding under the incessant western Ireland rain, but for a newborn abandoned in the cemetery of the parish church during the village's monthly market a few weeks before Christmas. The change this helpless baby forces upon this community, which received electricity just four years prior in This Is Happiness, heralds a greater societal electrification.
But all that is to come. Niall Williams keeps his focus tight, letting the story unfold in just a few weeks' time (though some clever foreshadowing hints at the characters' future selves). It is fable-like, with sumptuous descriptions and scenes that linger; this is a writer who loves his characters and his country unconditionally, warts and all.
Time of the Child, like all Williams' novels (read them all, you must!) is a masterclass in sublime prose, specificity of setting and character, subtle but vital unfurling of plot, and of the possibility of humanity when we allow grace to overcome our lesser selves.
The book is a gift. I hope you accept it.
As a writer and reader of fiction, I believe in the power of story to show us what the things we long for, struggle to define and to embody, look like in action. And few writers can release the shining light of grace in their words with the same sweet and powerful beauty as Niall Williams.
Returning to Faha, the fictional County Clare village on the banks of the River Shannon that was the setting of the novels This Is Happiness and History of the Rain, Time of the Child layers social change with private grief—a theme I find present in so many contemporary Irish novels. In a nation that moved from medieval to modern, from poverty to soaring wealth in a heartbeat, all while wrestling with the generational trauma of famine, occupation, civil war, and an identity wrapped up in religious doctrine that amounted to theocracy, political is personal in Ireland like few other Western societies. Yet Niall Williams layers this cultural complexity into a story of compassion and fierce mother love. A Christmas Miracle story, to boot.
A rural doctor, widowed and mourning his true, unrequited, second-chance love. A grown daughter, devoted to her father but perhaps sacrificing the best years of her life to remain by his side, secretly reading Edna O'Brien's banned Country Girls. A young boy weighted down by an adult's burden of guilt and shame. A village of characters shaped by their interdependence, their isolation, and by traditions that are slipping toward irrelevance as Ireland slips into the 1960s. They all may have gone on indefinitely, slowly eroding under the incessant western Ireland rain, but for a newborn abandoned in the cemetery of the parish church during the village's monthly market a few weeks before Christmas. The change this helpless baby forces upon this community, which received electricity just four years prior in This Is Happiness, heralds a greater societal electrification.
But all that is to come. Niall Williams keeps his focus tight, letting the story unfold in just a few weeks' time (though some clever foreshadowing hints at the characters' future selves). It is fable-like, with sumptuous descriptions and scenes that linger; this is a writer who loves his characters and his country unconditionally, warts and all.
Time of the Child, like all Williams' novels (read them all, you must!) is a masterclass in sublime prose, specificity of setting and character, subtle but vital unfurling of plot, and of the possibility of humanity when we allow grace to overcome our lesser selves.
The book is a gift. I hope you accept it.
November 30, 2024
Niall Williamson has had me rapt, smiling, worrying, caught up in the sometimes profound, often silly moments his people of Faha find themselves in, living in 1962 and this newly electrified village in Ireland. Doctor Troy is central in the village, providing care, somewhat aloof, living in the grand house with his oldest daughter, Ronnie. Here as December and Advent begin, the annual fair also happens bringing strangers and their goods to town.
When the fair is over and Faha calms to normal, there is an extra person found in the village, an infant, found by a boy and brought to Dr. Troy to save. The rest is this wonderful story. The prose is perfect, matching the moods of the story; pensive or moody when coping with constant rain or destroyed plans, happy or thankful when the sun finally shines on the rain-beaded countryside, and human(e) as a man sees into and learns truths of his heart.
This is a beautiful story, very much an Irish and Christmas story, and highly recommended.
Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC.
When the fair is over and Faha calms to normal, there is an extra person found in the village, an infant, found by a boy and brought to Dr. Troy to save. The rest is this wonderful story. The prose is perfect, matching the moods of the story; pensive or moody when coping with constant rain or destroyed plans, happy or thankful when the sun finally shines on the rain-beaded countryside, and human(e) as a man sees into and learns truths of his heart.
This is a beautiful story, very much an Irish and Christmas story, and highly recommended.
Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC.
February 13, 2025
Niall Williams returns to the town of Faha in the year 1962. Time of the Child invites me in and asks me to slow down and savor the musical language and meandering rhythm of Irish storytelling and rural small town life.
Williams paints a vivid portrait of the town from the constant rain and damp to the constant knowing of everyone's business to the colorful people that populate the town. His characters are full, authentic, and relatable. Like in many communities, women are the backbone of Faha.
"Although invisible to Church and State, it was women who knitted the country together, and in Faha, on Sunday morning after Mass, you could see the needles."
When Ronnie begins caring for a foundling, she discovers a new side to herself.
"She was sitting with the child on her left arm in a position that both had learned without lesson. They fitted in such a way, and in such a way, they were inside each other's living and breathing. Ronnie could not stop looking at the baby. It's ridiculous, she thought, lifting her face, but with the breaking of a smile. Stop looking at her. It was a command that counted for nothing, because, though she kept her head upright for some instants, she was defeated by a stronger force still, the smell of the baby. It overwhelmed all. It was a smell unmatched in the world, and she surrendered to it again now, lowering her face to the sleeping child and closing her eyes so the smell came about her and held her in it, and was, though all else might fall, the fundament of goodness.
This passage particularly resonates with me. I think new baby smell is the most wonderful fragrance. I'll go out of my way to hold a newborn just for the chance to inhale that delicious aroma. I am a baby rocker extraordinaire; babies know how much I adore them and they settle and fall asleep on me no matter how fractious they have been with others. I thoroughly enjoy seeing these two fall under the spell of this tiny baby.
Ronnie's father, Dr. Jack Troy immediately sees the bond emerge between his daughter and the baby. The complex relationship between father and daughter is beautifully rendered and is a centerpiece of this story. I see the lengths to which Jack is willing to go to ensure the happiness of his daughter; and how after years of holding the world at arm's length, he begins to let himself be vulnerable and follow the whispers of his heart.
A subplot of the church Canon sliding into dementia is handled with tenderness and humor.
"The doctor did not doubt that the curate's account was accurate, and that with the Canon there were many fraught times. But storytellers skip the everyday, mistaking the ordinary for the dull, seizing on the sensational and leaving out the habitual that is in fact the fabric of life. The condition of Father Tom was not only one characterised by domestic catastrophe and distress. This too, this calm smiling, benignity, the recalled boy in a wrinkled flesh, was how he was. The truth was less dramatic but told a fuller story."
Time of the Child is also a portrait of a community, the flaws and the foibles, the generosity and support and love. Williams asks what is our responsibility toward one another?
This is no sentimental tale; rather it is a story told with humor and insight. I am reminded that we are all part of humanity, that connection to family and community are essential for the human spirit, and that miracles can be found in the everyday.
One caution, Williams takes a long time setting up his story. Relax into his descriptions and the rhythm of the language and go along for the ride. You will be amply rewarded.
Publication 2024
Williams paints a vivid portrait of the town from the constant rain and damp to the constant knowing of everyone's business to the colorful people that populate the town. His characters are full, authentic, and relatable. Like in many communities, women are the backbone of Faha.
"Although invisible to Church and State, it was women who knitted the country together, and in Faha, on Sunday morning after Mass, you could see the needles."
When Ronnie begins caring for a foundling, she discovers a new side to herself.
"She was sitting with the child on her left arm in a position that both had learned without lesson. They fitted in such a way, and in such a way, they were inside each other's living and breathing. Ronnie could not stop looking at the baby. It's ridiculous, she thought, lifting her face, but with the breaking of a smile. Stop looking at her. It was a command that counted for nothing, because, though she kept her head upright for some instants, she was defeated by a stronger force still, the smell of the baby. It overwhelmed all. It was a smell unmatched in the world, and she surrendered to it again now, lowering her face to the sleeping child and closing her eyes so the smell came about her and held her in it, and was, though all else might fall, the fundament of goodness.
This passage particularly resonates with me. I think new baby smell is the most wonderful fragrance. I'll go out of my way to hold a newborn just for the chance to inhale that delicious aroma. I am a baby rocker extraordinaire; babies know how much I adore them and they settle and fall asleep on me no matter how fractious they have been with others. I thoroughly enjoy seeing these two fall under the spell of this tiny baby.
Ronnie's father, Dr. Jack Troy immediately sees the bond emerge between his daughter and the baby. The complex relationship between father and daughter is beautifully rendered and is a centerpiece of this story. I see the lengths to which Jack is willing to go to ensure the happiness of his daughter; and how after years of holding the world at arm's length, he begins to let himself be vulnerable and follow the whispers of his heart.
A subplot of the church Canon sliding into dementia is handled with tenderness and humor.
"The doctor did not doubt that the curate's account was accurate, and that with the Canon there were many fraught times. But storytellers skip the everyday, mistaking the ordinary for the dull, seizing on the sensational and leaving out the habitual that is in fact the fabric of life. The condition of Father Tom was not only one characterised by domestic catastrophe and distress. This too, this calm smiling, benignity, the recalled boy in a wrinkled flesh, was how he was. The truth was less dramatic but told a fuller story."
Time of the Child is also a portrait of a community, the flaws and the foibles, the generosity and support and love. Williams asks what is our responsibility toward one another?
This is no sentimental tale; rather it is a story told with humor and insight. I am reminded that we are all part of humanity, that connection to family and community are essential for the human spirit, and that miracles can be found in the everyday.
One caution, Williams takes a long time setting up his story. Relax into his descriptions and the rhythm of the language and go along for the ride. You will be amply rewarded.
Publication 2024
March 23, 2025
If you read the book description on GR, you'll think this is a novel about a baby abandoned on the steps of the church. She is brought dead to the village doctor who revives her. The boy and 2 old brothers who brought her are sworn to secrecy by the doctor, who needs time to decide the best course of action. Abandoned babies in Ireland in 1962 are fated for the infamous Catholic laundry home, noted for the cruel separation of unmarried mothers and their babies. It only takes a few minutes for his unmarried daughter to fall in love, which makes it even harder. She would never be allowed to keep the baby and raise her. So they hid her, hard to do in a busy practice with patients in and out all day.
Those are the bones of the story, but this novel is really about the village of Faha, first made famous in This Is Happiness and History of the Rain. As in all villages, people can be petty and mean, gossip is rampant, there are no secrets or privacy, there is poverty of pocket and spirit, and nosy neighbors galore. In addition, their beloved priest has finally succumbed to the dementia that has been lurking and the Curate is ready to consign him to a Catholic care home, a fearful and unfamiliar place. Poor Doctor Troy is surrounded on all sides by rules and conventions of the church.
"What is it you are trying to do, Jack?"
"That's easy, I'm trying to be a Christian, he said. Only the Church and the State are in my way."
"What if", he said, " what if it's the people that have a higher sense of what's right and wrong than those conscripted to enforce it?"
This is such a layered novel, written in William's beautiful, rambling prose, that we fall in love all over again with Faha, like we did in This Is Happiness. Add to that the advent and Christmas season, a couple of tiny little miracles, and this book will have you believing that most people are really good at heart. I think that's something we all need right now.
Those are the bones of the story, but this novel is really about the village of Faha, first made famous in This Is Happiness and History of the Rain. As in all villages, people can be petty and mean, gossip is rampant, there are no secrets or privacy, there is poverty of pocket and spirit, and nosy neighbors galore. In addition, their beloved priest has finally succumbed to the dementia that has been lurking and the Curate is ready to consign him to a Catholic care home, a fearful and unfamiliar place. Poor Doctor Troy is surrounded on all sides by rules and conventions of the church.
"What is it you are trying to do, Jack?"
"That's easy, I'm trying to be a Christian, he said. Only the Church and the State are in my way."
"What if", he said, " what if it's the people that have a higher sense of what's right and wrong than those conscripted to enforce it?"
This is such a layered novel, written in William's beautiful, rambling prose, that we fall in love all over again with Faha, like we did in This Is Happiness. Add to that the advent and Christmas season, a couple of tiny little miracles, and this book will have you believing that most people are really good at heart. I think that's something we all need right now.
January 27, 2025
“In Faha, the line between comedy and tragedy was drawn in pencil, and oftentimes rubbed out.”
I embarrassingly admit that this is my first Niall Williams book. I own This Is Happiness, also, but somehow never got around to it. Every page of TOTC is a journey of lyrical, evocative, dense but compelling prose and story that kept me riveted all the way through. Things may happen at a dilatory pace, but it works well for this accomplished, confident writer. The way of the author’s prose, his complex interiority and character-driven narrative, wholly blows me away. Prepare yourself for serious writing, substantial and heavyweight passages. If John Banville married Anne Enright and had a baby, it might be Niall Williams.
Set in 1962, in the Irish (fictional) village of Faha, in rainswept County Clare, everyone knows everyone and everyone’s business. The townsfolk are plugged into the church, the community, the health, and the welfare of all the families. If a pin drops in one house, it will be heard or heard about in the distant dwellings from the pin-dropper. It’s the kind of place where some inhabitants still don’t have electricity, and are suspicious of its effects on the soul.
Time of the Child focuses on a few folks, predominantly. There’s the indefatigable Dr Jack Troy, the medical doctor of the parish, who cares for the daily full waiting room, as well as house calls far and wide. He is the hardest working person in all of Faha, and he will tend to everyone, regardless of whether they can pay him or not (usually not). He’s a widow with no time on his hands, and a tender, sad secret about the woman he loved as a widower.
“Space and time were cousins but not on speaking terms…”
Dr. Troy has three daughters. Only his eldest, Ronnie (Veronica) still lives with him at home, and she helps him serve the sick and injured. (Ronnie reads book as if they were food, necessary for breathing). He feels guilty about interfering with his daughter’s chance at love, admonishes himself for selfishly needing her to help him care for patients and keep house. It’s evident that there are vacancies in the bursting hearts of father and daughter. In all their closeness, they avoid soulful truths. (I fell a little in love with Dr. Troy; he’s a better man than he thinks he is.)
Then a baby is found in the parish during an annual festival before Christmas. Jack Troy stealthily keeps the secret and the baby at his home, and Ronnie falls completely in love with this infant. In a town like Faha, how is it possible to keep this from the gossip mill? Moreover, the elder parish priest has been suffering from dementia; if he can’t self-care in the rectory, he could literally be put out to pasture. The homes for the elderly are poorly funded—it’s where you go to be ignored and die fast. Anther secret to keep.
Each scene is finely measured and begins with a magnificent stillness, and reaches outward to a mystical place that yet points inward, too, as the dark gives way to the light that gives way to the dark.
“…the waters of the river peaked with small lights, the stars like scales in a fisherman’s net. Then the clouds came again, and river and land alike were folded back into the dark, as if without light they did not exist, or in the night had been taken elsewhere, and only now, in the coming dawn, would they be forced to return.”
A massive thank you to Bloomsbury for sending me a finished copy for review.
I embarrassingly admit that this is my first Niall Williams book. I own This Is Happiness, also, but somehow never got around to it. Every page of TOTC is a journey of lyrical, evocative, dense but compelling prose and story that kept me riveted all the way through. Things may happen at a dilatory pace, but it works well for this accomplished, confident writer. The way of the author’s prose, his complex interiority and character-driven narrative, wholly blows me away. Prepare yourself for serious writing, substantial and heavyweight passages. If John Banville married Anne Enright and had a baby, it might be Niall Williams.
Set in 1962, in the Irish (fictional) village of Faha, in rainswept County Clare, everyone knows everyone and everyone’s business. The townsfolk are plugged into the church, the community, the health, and the welfare of all the families. If a pin drops in one house, it will be heard or heard about in the distant dwellings from the pin-dropper. It’s the kind of place where some inhabitants still don’t have electricity, and are suspicious of its effects on the soul.
Time of the Child focuses on a few folks, predominantly. There’s the indefatigable Dr Jack Troy, the medical doctor of the parish, who cares for the daily full waiting room, as well as house calls far and wide. He is the hardest working person in all of Faha, and he will tend to everyone, regardless of whether they can pay him or not (usually not). He’s a widow with no time on his hands, and a tender, sad secret about the woman he loved as a widower.
“Space and time were cousins but not on speaking terms…”
Dr. Troy has three daughters. Only his eldest, Ronnie (Veronica) still lives with him at home, and she helps him serve the sick and injured. (Ronnie reads book as if they were food, necessary for breathing). He feels guilty about interfering with his daughter’s chance at love, admonishes himself for selfishly needing her to help him care for patients and keep house. It’s evident that there are vacancies in the bursting hearts of father and daughter. In all their closeness, they avoid soulful truths. (I fell a little in love with Dr. Troy; he’s a better man than he thinks he is.)
Then a baby is found in the parish during an annual festival before Christmas. Jack Troy stealthily keeps the secret and the baby at his home, and Ronnie falls completely in love with this infant. In a town like Faha, how is it possible to keep this from the gossip mill? Moreover, the elder parish priest has been suffering from dementia; if he can’t self-care in the rectory, he could literally be put out to pasture. The homes for the elderly are poorly funded—it’s where you go to be ignored and die fast. Anther secret to keep.
Each scene is finely measured and begins with a magnificent stillness, and reaches outward to a mystical place that yet points inward, too, as the dark gives way to the light that gives way to the dark.
“…the waters of the river peaked with small lights, the stars like scales in a fisherman’s net. Then the clouds came again, and river and land alike were folded back into the dark, as if without light they did not exist, or in the night had been taken elsewhere, and only now, in the coming dawn, would they be forced to return.”
A massive thank you to Bloomsbury for sending me a finished copy for review.
December 7, 2024
3.5 stars
Gorgeous writing. A lovely story. Absolutely. However, the linguistic gymnastics that Mr. Williams excels at with awe and wonder, bogs down this story. What may take a sentence took a page, and pages and pages of that wore thin on me. I started to beg for the end. However, I don't want it to sound as though I didn't really enjoy this - because I did. It was as though I was on a sailboat - times when the wind would take up the sails and I was overjoyed with the story, the characters, the story of love a father has for his daughter and then the wind would stop and you would be left sitting there waiting and waiting for the wind to pick up.
(This book also seems to be the one that completes my 2024 Goodreads Reading Challenge!)
Gorgeous writing. A lovely story. Absolutely. However, the linguistic gymnastics that Mr. Williams excels at with awe and wonder, bogs down this story. What may take a sentence took a page, and pages and pages of that wore thin on me. I started to beg for the end. However, I don't want it to sound as though I didn't really enjoy this - because I did. It was as though I was on a sailboat - times when the wind would take up the sails and I was overjoyed with the story, the characters, the story of love a father has for his daughter and then the wind would stop and you would be left sitting there waiting and waiting for the wind to pick up.
(This book also seems to be the one that completes my 2024 Goodreads Reading Challenge!)
October 29, 2024
Congratulations Niall Williams - you made me cry again.
This is my first visit to the fictional Faha. It won't be my last but now I've to travel backwards. I look forward to finding out more about the people and the place.
In Time of the Child we are treated to a simply beautiful Christmas story. At the end of the town's fair Jude Quinlan, waiting to bring his father home from the pub, walks around the town and comes across the body of a baby left behind. With help he brings the baby to Doctor Troy and his daughter Ronnie.
From this point on Doctor Troy begins to weave himself a story that would mean his spinster daughter would find the happiness he firmly believes he took away. But will the other villagers be amenable to his machinations.
Niall Williams talent lies in never rushing you through a story that you can immerse yourself in. I wanted so much more by the end even though I was desperate to know what happened. It's a rare storyteller who can move you to laughter and tears at the same time but Mr Williams manages it on more than one occasion.
I am looking forward to reading History of the Rain and This Is Happiness just to bring Faha to life in my mind again.
Beautiful. An absolute triumph of a book. Very highly recommended. I'd say this would make the perfect Christmas present but why wait?
Thankyou to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the advance review copy. Very much appreciated.
This is my first visit to the fictional Faha. It won't be my last but now I've to travel backwards. I look forward to finding out more about the people and the place.
In Time of the Child we are treated to a simply beautiful Christmas story. At the end of the town's fair Jude Quinlan, waiting to bring his father home from the pub, walks around the town and comes across the body of a baby left behind. With help he brings the baby to Doctor Troy and his daughter Ronnie.
From this point on Doctor Troy begins to weave himself a story that would mean his spinster daughter would find the happiness he firmly believes he took away. But will the other villagers be amenable to his machinations.
Niall Williams talent lies in never rushing you through a story that you can immerse yourself in. I wanted so much more by the end even though I was desperate to know what happened. It's a rare storyteller who can move you to laughter and tears at the same time but Mr Williams manages it on more than one occasion.
I am looking forward to reading History of the Rain and This Is Happiness just to bring Faha to life in my mind again.
Beautiful. An absolute triumph of a book. Very highly recommended. I'd say this would make the perfect Christmas present but why wait?
Thankyou to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the advance review copy. Very much appreciated.
March 23, 2025
This is the first book of Niall Williams that I have read. I gave it as a gift to my daughter who read it and gave it back to me to read. I know it wasn’t Christmas time, but it was St. Patrick’s Day.
I enjoyed this book very much for the most part. It took me quite a while to get into the story. I’m glad that I kept reading as the story was beautiful. It is an about a special child. A child left abandoned in a small Irish village and how this one child changed the lives of others.
I enjoyed this book very much for the most part. It took me quite a while to get into the story. I’m glad that I kept reading as the story was beautiful. It is an about a special child. A child left abandoned in a small Irish village and how this one child changed the lives of others.
September 30, 2024
Another beautifully crafted novel. With lyrical writing, Niall Williams being us back to the village of Faha and the lives of those living there. A child is found; a family reconfigured. I loved every word of this book.
January 7, 2025
Although I've had Niall Williams on my TBR for years now, this is my first read of his work, and I wish I'd done this sooner! I've made the jump and am full in . . .the writing is gorgeous, each sentence presents as a beckoning puzzle and ends with a laugh out loud. Amazing.
Time of the Child is a hometown story set in Faha, Ireland - and do yourself a favor and listen to the audio - the narrator, Dermot Crowley, does a delicious job. The year under consideration is 1962, and the characters that bloom and bluster on these pages pay you no mind, although you will be seen and addressed a few times as the storyteller works his way through the tale. Sometimes the road overwinds, but rest assured you'll be sorted. As for characters - if I listed my favorites. . .well - you will know who they are.
As for the story itself - perfect. Suspense, tension, emotion, concern, I was fully engaged in the ways I suspect the author wanted me to be. And, bonus, this is wrapped around the days reaching toward, through and on the resting side of that social event of any given year - Christmas. Yet it is done without a distracting focus on the equipment and gear of the holiday. All the deep goodness swirls in, without a cloying sweet bribery. Genuine fiction throughout. (But is it? I keep finding comparisons in my own ordinary experiences.)
So, Dear Reader: Don't miss this one. It plays in the same world as some of his others, but I'm told no reading in order is required, nor do you rely on shared info - you simply enjoy the easter-eggy feeling of recognizing known places and reuniting with friends.
25|52:25b
Time of the Child is a hometown story set in Faha, Ireland - and do yourself a favor and listen to the audio - the narrator, Dermot Crowley, does a delicious job. The year under consideration is 1962, and the characters that bloom and bluster on these pages pay you no mind, although you will be seen and addressed a few times as the storyteller works his way through the tale. Sometimes the road overwinds, but rest assured you'll be sorted. As for characters - if I listed my favorites. . .well - you will know who they are.
As for the story itself - perfect. Suspense, tension, emotion, concern, I was fully engaged in the ways I suspect the author wanted me to be. And, bonus, this is wrapped around the days reaching toward, through and on the resting side of that social event of any given year - Christmas. Yet it is done without a distracting focus on the equipment and gear of the holiday. All the deep goodness swirls in, without a cloying sweet bribery. Genuine fiction throughout. (But is it? I keep finding comparisons in my own ordinary experiences.)
So, Dear Reader: Don't miss this one. It plays in the same world as some of his others, but I'm told no reading in order is required, nor do you rely on shared info - you simply enjoy the easter-eggy feeling of recognizing known places and reuniting with friends.
25|52:25b
November 19, 2024
4.5 Stars
’The word love, said aloud, had the character of a swung thurible, the frankincense of it everywhere.’
A story shared through memories of Christmas in 1962, this is set in Ireland in a small town where an infant is discovered by a young boy who has been patiently waiting for his father, who is enjoying the warmth inside a tavern. The baby is so still he believes that she is dead, but when the baby is seen by the doctor, he breathes life back into her.
In a way, this tiny babe manages to bring a new life to the doctor’s daughter, Ronnie, who watches over the infant throughout the night, and by morning, she has changed. There is a new meaning to her life, to protect this gift that she has been charged with. This child is a miracle. A Christmas miracle that changes their lives.
’This is what happened in Faha over Christmas of 1962, and what became known in the parish as a time of the child.
‘To those who live there, Faha was perhaps the last place on earth to expect a miracle. It had neither the history nor the geography for it. The history was remarkable for the one fact upon which all commentators agreed: nothing happened here.
A lovely story of love, compassion, and the child that leads them.
Pub Date: 19 Nov 2024
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Bloomsbury USA / Bloomsbury Publishing
December 30, 2024
The tiny village of Faha in the South-West region of Ireland. The weeks leading up to Christmas, 1962.
Young Jude Quinlan was sent into town to deliver his father safely home from the pub. As he waited, he noticed a small bundle lying inside the church grounds. He lifted it up and carefully pulled back a corner, and found the tiniest baby he’d ever seen. It was very late, biting cold and rainy, so his only thought was to get it to the village doctor, despite the late hour. When they arrived, the child was no longer breathing. Doctor Troy had to pry it from Jude’s arms—he loved the child and didn’t want to let it go. The doctor quickly took it into his surgery to try to revive it. Jude stayed in the kitchen; he fell to his knees to pray.
Doctor Troy’s eldest daughter, Ronnie, still lived at home, cooking, cleaning, and generally keeping house for him. Once the doctor was able to breathe new life into the tiny girl, he carried her into the kitchen and placed her in Ronnie’s arms. And a spell was cast.🪄 Ronnie was a natural. She knew exactly what to do and handled her like a pro—like she was born to be a mother. Jude was sworn to secrecy and sent on home. For the week or two leading up to Christmas, Doctor Troy and Ronnie kept a very low profile, knowing how quickly the news could spread. Ronnie had quickly fallen in love with the beautiful wee girl. She gave her the name ‘Noelle’ and promised she’d never let anything come between them. Even the Doctor felt a similar attachment. He surprised himself at how “soft” he’d become since the child came into their home.👶💗
So, obviously they had a problem and needed to find a solution quickly! Once the authorities learned of the baby, they’d be knocking at their door and would surely take it away. Unmarried women—even old doctors—were not permitted to adopt. The town was filled with interesting characters, all looking forward to a much better Christmas this year. And that’s when things got really interesting…
This is an insanely good read! Time of the Child is a book I’d highly recommend at any time of the year, but especially at Christmas. It’s a feel-good reminder that all people are inherently good.
5 “For-unto-us-a-child-is-born” stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Young Jude Quinlan was sent into town to deliver his father safely home from the pub. As he waited, he noticed a small bundle lying inside the church grounds. He lifted it up and carefully pulled back a corner, and found the tiniest baby he’d ever seen. It was very late, biting cold and rainy, so his only thought was to get it to the village doctor, despite the late hour. When they arrived, the child was no longer breathing. Doctor Troy had to pry it from Jude’s arms—he loved the child and didn’t want to let it go. The doctor quickly took it into his surgery to try to revive it. Jude stayed in the kitchen; he fell to his knees to pray.
Doctor Troy’s eldest daughter, Ronnie, still lived at home, cooking, cleaning, and generally keeping house for him. Once the doctor was able to breathe new life into the tiny girl, he carried her into the kitchen and placed her in Ronnie’s arms. And a spell was cast.🪄 Ronnie was a natural. She knew exactly what to do and handled her like a pro—like she was born to be a mother. Jude was sworn to secrecy and sent on home. For the week or two leading up to Christmas, Doctor Troy and Ronnie kept a very low profile, knowing how quickly the news could spread. Ronnie had quickly fallen in love with the beautiful wee girl. She gave her the name ‘Noelle’ and promised she’d never let anything come between them. Even the Doctor felt a similar attachment. He surprised himself at how “soft” he’d become since the child came into their home.👶💗
So, obviously they had a problem and needed to find a solution quickly! Once the authorities learned of the baby, they’d be knocking at their door and would surely take it away. Unmarried women—even old doctors—were not permitted to adopt. The town was filled with interesting characters, all looking forward to a much better Christmas this year. And that’s when things got really interesting…
This is an insanely good read! Time of the Child is a book I’d highly recommend at any time of the year, but especially at Christmas. It’s a feel-good reminder that all people are inherently good.
5 “For-unto-us-a-child-is-born” stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
January 6, 2025
This is my second novel by Niall Williams and once again I was left wanting at the end of the book.
This is a slow burn of a story, beautiful Irish descriptions of Christmas and winter in a small Irish town where the Doctor and his daughter are held in high esteem. This is a character driven novel and depicts an Irish small town in the 1960s where everyone knows each other’s business and gossip makes up for dreary and depressing weather.
I enjoyed the novel; it is quite lyrical and descriptive, but the story really didn't take off until about 40% through the book. The ending felt rushed and abrupt, and I just wished there was more punch to the story.
This is probably a book that will win awards for it descriptive and lyrical writing in 2025.
A worthwhile reader but not one for my favourites shelf.
This is a slow burn of a story, beautiful Irish descriptions of Christmas and winter in a small Irish town where the Doctor and his daughter are held in high esteem. This is a character driven novel and depicts an Irish small town in the 1960s where everyone knows each other’s business and gossip makes up for dreary and depressing weather.
I enjoyed the novel; it is quite lyrical and descriptive, but the story really didn't take off until about 40% through the book. The ending felt rushed and abrupt, and I just wished there was more punch to the story.
This is probably a book that will win awards for it descriptive and lyrical writing in 2025.
A worthwhile reader but not one for my favourites shelf.
November 23, 2024
I can’t possibly imagine a book that would be more boring than this one.
November 2, 2024
I absolutely loved Naill Williams’ “This is Happiness”, so I was thrilled to return to the enchanting little Irish town of Faha, in his latest novel, “Time of the Child”.
It’s December of 1962, just four years since electricity came to Faha, and Doctor Jack Troy and his eldest daughter Ronnie (a “spinster”) go about their quotidian tasks and exchanges in the small Irish village as always. Doctor Troy makes house calls on the sick and dying, and Ronnie organizes and manages his practice. Jack Troy’s three diagnostic choices, handed down from his doctor father are: “It will get better, get worse, or stay the same.”
We know from the beginning that at some point a baby will arrive at the doctor’s doorstep, but we don’t know how or why, as Williams brilliantly sets the stage.
When I reached that part of the narrative TIME STOPPED for me. I was transported directly into the scene with Williams’ vivid descriptions. Neither film nor photo could have given me better insight into every aspect of those startling moments.
From there I simply had to hang on, completely captivated by what was going to happen next. The doctor makes a plan that is both impossibly complicated and sure to be foiled at some disastrous point, yet I held my breath in hope! Because Naill Williams is a brilliant and beautiful writer and what he gives his readers, in addition to unforgettable characters, witty prose, and perfect settings, is always always LOVE.
It’s December of 1962, just four years since electricity came to Faha, and Doctor Jack Troy and his eldest daughter Ronnie (a “spinster”) go about their quotidian tasks and exchanges in the small Irish village as always. Doctor Troy makes house calls on the sick and dying, and Ronnie organizes and manages his practice. Jack Troy’s three diagnostic choices, handed down from his doctor father are: “It will get better, get worse, or stay the same.”
We know from the beginning that at some point a baby will arrive at the doctor’s doorstep, but we don’t know how or why, as Williams brilliantly sets the stage.
When I reached that part of the narrative TIME STOPPED for me. I was transported directly into the scene with Williams’ vivid descriptions. Neither film nor photo could have given me better insight into every aspect of those startling moments.
From there I simply had to hang on, completely captivated by what was going to happen next. The doctor makes a plan that is both impossibly complicated and sure to be foiled at some disastrous point, yet I held my breath in hope! Because Naill Williams is a brilliant and beautiful writer and what he gives his readers, in addition to unforgettable characters, witty prose, and perfect settings, is always always LOVE.
August 8, 2024
If you have fond memories of “This is Happiness”, this book is for you.
December 22, 2024
Beautifully written but too slow for me and just not in the mood… I wil try at a less chaotic time to pick up again.🤷♀️🤦♀️
December 10, 2024
Niall Williams returns to the small coastal village of Faha, Ireland for this delightful story set during the Advent season of 1962. It's a character-driven novel to be read slowly and savored for its insight into the true heart of humanity.
Read
April 4, 2025This is the kind of book I have to read more than once. The details are so intricate and beautifully captured that I get caught up in them and lose track of the bigger story. (I'm a detail person in life too, so this is not surprising.) Now that I know what the story is and how it ends (I was a little fearful of how it would end), I want to re-visit this and definitely during Advent. I think the implied connection to the Virgin Mary in this story is incredibly intriguing and that's one thing I think would be easier to contemplate on a re-read. I love Ronnie's character. We get her mostly through her father's eyes but occasionally we get her own perspective and I'm longing for more. I love her reading, her intense introspection, her creativity, her unspoken love for her father, her intense commitment to Faha, and her spinsterhood. I want a whole Ronnie story please!
We also get so intricately into Doctor Troy's head. He's such a fascinating character and his role as a doctor and how he thinks about that role is endlessly interesting. I'd love to discuss so many aspects of this story with others. Plus the juxtaposition of beginning life and ending life, plus an elderly person who has become a child through dementia...just so many interesting angles here.
But mostly when you're reading the story, there's an exquisite vulnerability to the storytelling that is almost painful because it's so revealing about the 'dustiness' of being human ('you are dust and to dust you shall return' so a good Lenten novel too). The town of Faha itself with its endless rain gives the whole novel an almost primordial feel--that this is a place of existence that takes one back to the most primitive things of human existence: life, death, water, prayer, struggle, grief, birth.
Please please Close Reads, cover this novel in 2026! I already know David loves it.
A helpful fellow Close Reader pointed me towards David Kern’s review of the novel in World Magazine from December, and I found it very helpful. Here’s one paragraph I particularly liked:
“In fact, Williams’ work shares a spiritual kinship with the novels of Berry and Robinson. All three tell stories about generational wounds that are buried alongside age-old traditions meant to provide form and healing. All three authors linger in the reality that “real change is often seen only in hindsight” but that “the greatest challenge of life … is always nothing more nor less than how to get through another day.””
David notes so many more intricacies to the novel that I didn’t touch on above at all, like Dr Troy’s empiricism and how he’s slowly opened up to the possibility of miracle and love. I loved this in the novel because it feels so countercultural to our secular world but it’s exactly what we all need and long for.
We also get so intricately into Doctor Troy's head. He's such a fascinating character and his role as a doctor and how he thinks about that role is endlessly interesting. I'd love to discuss so many aspects of this story with others. Plus the juxtaposition of beginning life and ending life, plus an elderly person who has become a child through dementia...just so many interesting angles here.
But mostly when you're reading the story, there's an exquisite vulnerability to the storytelling that is almost painful because it's so revealing about the 'dustiness' of being human ('you are dust and to dust you shall return' so a good Lenten novel too). The town of Faha itself with its endless rain gives the whole novel an almost primordial feel--that this is a place of existence that takes one back to the most primitive things of human existence: life, death, water, prayer, struggle, grief, birth.
Please please Close Reads, cover this novel in 2026! I already know David loves it.
A helpful fellow Close Reader pointed me towards David Kern’s review of the novel in World Magazine from December, and I found it very helpful. Here’s one paragraph I particularly liked:
“In fact, Williams’ work shares a spiritual kinship with the novels of Berry and Robinson. All three tell stories about generational wounds that are buried alongside age-old traditions meant to provide form and healing. All three authors linger in the reality that “real change is often seen only in hindsight” but that “the greatest challenge of life … is always nothing more nor less than how to get through another day.””
David notes so many more intricacies to the novel that I didn’t touch on above at all, like Dr Troy’s empiricism and how he’s slowly opened up to the possibility of miracle and love. I loved this in the novel because it feels so countercultural to our secular world but it’s exactly what we all need and long for.
December 10, 2024
Oh, the writing. Oh, the language. The words alone will transport you to December 1962 in rainy, windy, and cold Faha in the far west of Ireland. Read a few pages, and you'll want to snuggle under a blanket just to warm up. To heck with the story, the book should win an award just for the exquisite, hauntingly lyrical prose by author Niall Williams.
But the story is excellent, too—with one important caveat (see the paragraph below). The plot: An abandoned newborn is discovered in a cemetery on the night of the busy Faha Christmas fair, and she is so cold she must be dead. Without anyone else knowing, three people—two men and a boy—take the baby to the town doctor, who lives and works in a house with his eldest daughter, a 29-year-old who has never married. The baby isn't dead. The widowed doctor sees the joy this little girl brings to his own child and must concoct a way for them to keep the baby—something the Roman Catholic church and the Irish authorities would never allow of a spinster. Meanwhile, the infant's presence in their home must be an absolute secret so the baby isn't taken from them, but secrets are not kept long in tiny, gossipy Faha.
To get to this point in the book, one has to read the set-up, which places the reader into the center of Faha where we get to know its charming ways, eccentric people, and myriad mysteries. And it's a very long set-up at approximately 150 pages. Even with the extraordinary writing, I imagine some readers will be tempted to give up on the novel for the simple reason that nothing happens. This is one of those times that I urge you not to give in to that temptation. Keep reading because the payoff is remarkable.
Beginning on the first Sunday in Advent, this is an ideal book to read in December with allusions throughout the story to this liturgical season of waiting and expectation. There are themes of regrets for the past, but these are balanced with themes of hope and second chances for the future. Most of all, this is a book about family love.
This is a novel that I will think about long after I finish the last page. "Time of the Child" is a literary treasure.
But the story is excellent, too—with one important caveat (see the paragraph below). The plot: An abandoned newborn is discovered in a cemetery on the night of the busy Faha Christmas fair, and she is so cold she must be dead. Without anyone else knowing, three people—two men and a boy—take the baby to the town doctor, who lives and works in a house with his eldest daughter, a 29-year-old who has never married. The baby isn't dead. The widowed doctor sees the joy this little girl brings to his own child and must concoct a way for them to keep the baby—something the Roman Catholic church and the Irish authorities would never allow of a spinster. Meanwhile, the infant's presence in their home must be an absolute secret so the baby isn't taken from them, but secrets are not kept long in tiny, gossipy Faha.
To get to this point in the book, one has to read the set-up, which places the reader into the center of Faha where we get to know its charming ways, eccentric people, and myriad mysteries. And it's a very long set-up at approximately 150 pages. Even with the extraordinary writing, I imagine some readers will be tempted to give up on the novel for the simple reason that nothing happens. This is one of those times that I urge you not to give in to that temptation. Keep reading because the payoff is remarkable.
Beginning on the first Sunday in Advent, this is an ideal book to read in December with allusions throughout the story to this liturgical season of waiting and expectation. There are themes of regrets for the past, but these are balanced with themes of hope and second chances for the future. Most of all, this is a book about family love.
This is a novel that I will think about long after I finish the last page. "Time of the Child" is a literary treasure.
July 19, 2025
All the stars - the immaculate writing, the tender revealing of the bounty and magnanimity of the human heart, all took my breath away. Another Irish writer gets added to my list of “must reads.”
December 28, 2024
“What I am doing may be wrong. But… what I am going to choose to believe is something I heard in church once. Forgiveness.”
Time of the Child is a slow-burner. It’s not the kind of book that grabs you by the lapels and screams, ‘Pay attention! There are lots of curves ahead!” Rather, it’s the kind of book that says, “Slow down. What’s your hurry? I’m going to spin a tale you need to hear, and there’s no rush getting there.”
Put another way, it’s a contemplative book. It’s set in the fictional village of Faha, where “time did not go straight but round and round” where a highly-respected and taciturn doctor named Jack Troy lives with his oldest daughter, Ronnie. Love seems to have forsaken Ronnie and the good doctor holds himself responsible. Years ago, she had a brief relationship but he didn’t think the young man was good enough for her.
And then, an abandoned baby surreptitiously comes into their lives. Dr. Troy watches his daughter bloom with love for this baby girl. But it is 1962, and single women cannot adopt. There are two obstacles that stand in her way: the State. And the Church.
Faha is the type of town where everyone knows everyone’s business. Niall Williams meanders in and out of the key story, introducing us to the Canon, a priest who is succumbing to dementia, a young boy named Jude whose father drinks and gambles, a busy-body postmistress, a dying grandmother, an eager-to-please younger priest, and a host of other intriguing townspeople.
This is a lovely story, a Christmas miracle (and I can attest to the fact that you don’t need to be Christian to feel its joy.) It’s a HUMAN story, more than anything. As Jack Troy says, “God knows all the answers. I’m trying something more difficult: the human level.” It’s a story of love and authenticity and caring and redemption. And Lord knows, we need more of that kind of stories in dark times. Thank you to Bloomsbury for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.
Time of the Child is a slow-burner. It’s not the kind of book that grabs you by the lapels and screams, ‘Pay attention! There are lots of curves ahead!” Rather, it’s the kind of book that says, “Slow down. What’s your hurry? I’m going to spin a tale you need to hear, and there’s no rush getting there.”
Put another way, it’s a contemplative book. It’s set in the fictional village of Faha, where “time did not go straight but round and round” where a highly-respected and taciturn doctor named Jack Troy lives with his oldest daughter, Ronnie. Love seems to have forsaken Ronnie and the good doctor holds himself responsible. Years ago, she had a brief relationship but he didn’t think the young man was good enough for her.
And then, an abandoned baby surreptitiously comes into their lives. Dr. Troy watches his daughter bloom with love for this baby girl. But it is 1962, and single women cannot adopt. There are two obstacles that stand in her way: the State. And the Church.
Faha is the type of town where everyone knows everyone’s business. Niall Williams meanders in and out of the key story, introducing us to the Canon, a priest who is succumbing to dementia, a young boy named Jude whose father drinks and gambles, a busy-body postmistress, a dying grandmother, an eager-to-please younger priest, and a host of other intriguing townspeople.
This is a lovely story, a Christmas miracle (and I can attest to the fact that you don’t need to be Christian to feel its joy.) It’s a HUMAN story, more than anything. As Jack Troy says, “God knows all the answers. I’m trying something more difficult: the human level.” It’s a story of love and authenticity and caring and redemption. And Lord knows, we need more of that kind of stories in dark times. Thank you to Bloomsbury for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.
January 9, 2025
DNF-the writing was not for me…way way too wordy and hard to follow. Unlike me to leave a book unfinished.
June 25, 2025
"In Faha, the line between comedy and tragedy was drawn in pencil, and oftentimes rubbed out."
"Don't people put God in His place by calling this *ordinary* life?"
"She fell to her knees beside her eldest son and lifted his head into her lap and began a rocking that was like a boat sailing that no one else could board."
"Worthiness was the standard that rose while you lived. Failing it, the experience of every day."
"But her father's eyes had that same look of sorrowful wisdom that came from a lifetime's encounter with the thorns of human story. It was a look that could slip over into despair..."
"She knew from the time it was taking. She knew from years of seeing him pick, not the easiest option, not the common way — but after internal examinations of all possible solutions, and a wrestle with conscience that had no final round — choosing a course he believed right. She knew from the very breathing of him, the way he moved in the world..."
"The baby knew. She knew that Ronnie was not her mother. She knew the world had betrayed her, that the first covenant had been broken and that she was landed in a displacement in which she could trust no one... The infant cried. She cried with her whole being... as though in a language older than words, as though in it were the original expression of wound: the first hurt that was the failure of love."
“Wonder was a word thinned from use, but it was what she felt watching the girl feed in that night kitchen with a single bulb burning and all Faha asleep.”
"The morning after intimacy is its own country. You go softly there. That country has its own code, its own custom and language which is more tender, shier, and kinder than the one that applies when people are in ordinary daylight.
“He did not realize his right hand was against his chest, as though to keep the spear from going deeper or falling out. Like all walking around with heartache, he was surprised that it could not be seen.”
“He wished he could lay his hat on her table, and lay his head in her lap and say nothing, and have nothing said — but be in the stillness and repose of profound love, by which all failures are absolved.”
"Don't people put God in His place by calling this *ordinary* life?"
"She fell to her knees beside her eldest son and lifted his head into her lap and began a rocking that was like a boat sailing that no one else could board."
"Worthiness was the standard that rose while you lived. Failing it, the experience of every day."
"But her father's eyes had that same look of sorrowful wisdom that came from a lifetime's encounter with the thorns of human story. It was a look that could slip over into despair..."
"She knew from the time it was taking. She knew from years of seeing him pick, not the easiest option, not the common way — but after internal examinations of all possible solutions, and a wrestle with conscience that had no final round — choosing a course he believed right. She knew from the very breathing of him, the way he moved in the world..."
"The baby knew. She knew that Ronnie was not her mother. She knew the world had betrayed her, that the first covenant had been broken and that she was landed in a displacement in which she could trust no one... The infant cried. She cried with her whole being... as though in a language older than words, as though in it were the original expression of wound: the first hurt that was the failure of love."
“Wonder was a word thinned from use, but it was what she felt watching the girl feed in that night kitchen with a single bulb burning and all Faha asleep.”
"The morning after intimacy is its own country. You go softly there. That country has its own code, its own custom and language which is more tender, shier, and kinder than the one that applies when people are in ordinary daylight.
“He did not realize his right hand was against his chest, as though to keep the spear from going deeper or falling out. Like all walking around with heartache, he was surprised that it could not be seen.”
“He wished he could lay his hat on her table, and lay his head in her lap and say nothing, and have nothing said — but be in the stillness and repose of profound love, by which all failures are absolved.”
March 10, 2025
Listened to the audiobook with Simon. So beautifully written. We were both spellbound. I would have more quotes but we were on a road trip and I was driving!
Favourite quotes that illustrate the lovely language:
"Over time the lessons of the Royal College had been replaced by life experience and he had developed a diagnosis style informed by years of treating a marginal people of quiet dignity who had learned how to live in a place that was mostly water."
"She had some lack, she thought, not to be able to get him to propose and take her into the house with his mother. She was not beautiful enough she decided. It was a corrosive conclusion, the acid kept inside her by the cork of the un-popped question, it ate her youth and flattened her curls, leaving her with a let down stranded air and the tight mouth of the unchosen."
"They played [chess] by post, one move at a time, so that a game took months. The doctor played mercurially for it was the only time he didn't have to take care. Although each move came on a headed paper with nothing but the algebraic notation and the spider Arabic of a signature initial, the games acted as a diary of the inner dynamics, the trials, raptures and convulsions of his soul."
Favourite quotes that illustrate the lovely language:
"Over time the lessons of the Royal College had been replaced by life experience and he had developed a diagnosis style informed by years of treating a marginal people of quiet dignity who had learned how to live in a place that was mostly water."
"She had some lack, she thought, not to be able to get him to propose and take her into the house with his mother. She was not beautiful enough she decided. It was a corrosive conclusion, the acid kept inside her by the cork of the un-popped question, it ate her youth and flattened her curls, leaving her with a let down stranded air and the tight mouth of the unchosen."
"They played [chess] by post, one move at a time, so that a game took months. The doctor played mercurially for it was the only time he didn't have to take care. Although each move came on a headed paper with nothing but the algebraic notation and the spider Arabic of a signature initial, the games acted as a diary of the inner dynamics, the trials, raptures and convulsions of his soul."
October 23, 2024
This is a tale of a little village somewhere in Ireland. It's a tale of a small community where the center is a priest, Father Tom, whose health is rapidly declining, and doctor Jack Troy. There are other characters, too, such as the daughters of doctor Troy or the family of a boy called Jude. Through them, we see the winter of 1962 and what life was like back then. Everything changes once the baby is found. Isn't that a symbol?
The writing is lyrical: "Clouds the color of new welding appeared, heavily made, apprentice-work, in shapes unshapen like vapour". It`s rich and descriptive. "In the elbows of the road, they lost sight of their cattle, walking on the trail of tampered ditch grass and broken bramble, the spasmed dropping of fluid dungs that were the signature of an animals' day out. But they showed no panic."
Rich language and a slow story perfectly suit the wintertime within the story and it`s a perfect read for a cold and dark evening. If you`re a fan of such books this might be for you. If you prefer stories with more of a substance you might find yourself losing attention quite quickly and often.
The writing is lyrical: "Clouds the color of new welding appeared, heavily made, apprentice-work, in shapes unshapen like vapour". It`s rich and descriptive. "In the elbows of the road, they lost sight of their cattle, walking on the trail of tampered ditch grass and broken bramble, the spasmed dropping of fluid dungs that were the signature of an animals' day out. But they showed no panic."
Rich language and a slow story perfectly suit the wintertime within the story and it`s a perfect read for a cold and dark evening. If you`re a fan of such books this might be for you. If you prefer stories with more of a substance you might find yourself losing attention quite quickly and often.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,008 reviews