I this book because...
I loved this book because Niall Williams transported me to Faha, a small Irish parish in western Ireland on the verge of having electricity installed, and I happily lived there with the characters at the crossroads into modernity and didn’t want my visit to end.
I worked on a documentary in Ireland in 1983, lived with Irish families, visited pubs, and listened to live music, and this book happily brought me back. Williams’s veneration for Irish humor, music and musicians is clear in his writing that captures the lyricism of the music and poetry. He describes poignant moments with such prosaic beauty that I reread passages to savor them.
The people of Faha were great storytellers and, when confronted with problems, avoided too much talk but found ways to express an abundance of love and feeling towards the humans among them and their foibles.
9 authors picked This Is Happiness as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Shortlisted for Best Novel in the Irish Book Awards Longlisted for the 2020 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 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…