Book Summary and Reviews of Time of the Child by Niall Williams

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Techeditor

Another great Irish writer
Ireland seems to have a disproportionate share of great writers. I joke that they must have superior English and writing classes over there because several of my favorite authors are Irish. And now I just found another.

Niall Williams has written other books before, but Time of the Child, his latest, is my first. The story is about the people who live in a small town in Ireland during the 1960s. Apparently, Williams wrote an earlier book about this same town, so this is a return.

In Time of the Child, the town's doctor, a widower, lives with his oldest daughter, Ronnie. When they take in a baby that someone finds, Ronnie ends up falling in love with the child. But neither Ireland nor the Catholic Church there will allow a single mother to adopt a child. So what to do?

Normally, I dislike writing style that goes on and on about details that do not seem to push the story forward. Yet Williams does that, and I love it. And his sentences are long, too. But none of this feels unnecessary.

So you may want to read an excerpt before you buy Time of the Child. But, truly, this is a five-star read.

Cathryn Conroy

A Literary Treasure: Exquisite Writing and a Heart-Wrenching Plot
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.

Other books by Niall Williams at BookBrowse