SHORTLISTED FOR THE BEST NOVEL IN THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 WALTER SCOTT PRIZE
By the author of Four Letters of Love, the international bestseller now a major film starring Helena Bonham Carter and Pierce Brosnan

'I love this book so passionately' Ann Patchett
'Lyrical, tender and sumptuously perceptive' Sunday Times

After dropping out of the seminary, seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe finds himself back in Faha, a small Irish parish where nothing ever changes, including the ever-falling rain.

But one morning the rain stops and news reaches the parish - electricity is finally arriving. With it comes a lodger to Noel's home, Christy McMahon. Though he can't explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed.

As Noel navigates his coming-of-age, Christy's buried past gradually comes to light, casting a glow on a small world and making it new.

'If you're craving a novel of delicate wit laced with rare insight, this, truly, is happiness' Washington Post
'Written with a turn of phrase that makes the reader want to underline something on every page'
Financial Times
'What makes this so compelling and enjoyable is Williams's transparent love of his characters and delight in his setting' Observer

Niall Williams was born in Dublin in 1958. He studied English and French literature at University College Dublin before graduating with a Master's degree in Modern American Literature. He moved to New York in 1980 where he married Christine Breen, whom he had met while she was a Master's student also at UCD, and took his first job 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. 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 Kiltumper in west 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.

Shortlisted for Best Novel in the Irish Book Awards
Longlisted for the 2020 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

The most enchanting novel you'll read this year, from the acclaimed author of Man Booker-longlisted History of the Rain

'Lyrical, tender and sumptuously perceptive' Sunday Times

'A love letter to the sleepy, unhurried and delightfully odd Ireland that is all but gone' Irish Independent

After dropping out of the seminary, seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe finds himself back in Faha; a small Irish parish where nothing ever changes, including the ever-falling rain.

But one morning the rain stops and news reaches the parish - the electricity is finally arriving. With it comes a lodger to Noel's home, Christy McMahon. Though he can't explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed.

As Noel navigates his coming-of-age by Christy's side, falling in and out of love, Christy's buried past gradually comes to light, casting a glow on a small world and making it new.