Time of the Child

October 1, 2024

Williams, author of the Booker-longlisted History of the Rain, returns to the small Irish town of Faha (the setting of This Is Happiness). During the Christmas season of 1962, Dr. Jack Troy and his daughter Ronnie have their lives upended when a baby is left in their care. With a 125K-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

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Starred review from October 1, 2024
Dr. Jack Troy is a man of taciturn rectitude, his quiet confidence a comfort to the villagers of Faha, who present themselves with sniffles and scrapes. He is a man to be trusted and respected, beloved in the way of Irish people who bestow compliments with the paucity of leprechaun's tears. When young Jude Quindlan finds a baby abandoned in the churchyard after the annual Christmas fair in 1962, he knows the only safe place to bring the infant is to Troy's home, which he shares with his adult daughter, Ronnie. But a baby in a house where no husband is likely to appear is a scandal the doctor and his daughter may not endure. Troy abandons his role of stern physician for one of protective father to contrive a scenario whereby Ronnie can keep the baby girl as her own, a scheme dependent upon "the inveterate layering of all Irish life, where the most important things were never said, and depth was more valued than surface." Exploring possibility with a generous and intimate spirit, Williams (This Is Happiness, 2019) invokes an ode to love even though "purity is a commodity the world can only tolerate in thimbles."

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Starred review from September 1, 2024
In a small Irish town, the local doctor deals with the very young, the very old, and the possibility that he's ruined his daughter's life. "To those who lived 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." Well, they are wrong about that. This sequel to Williams' much-lovedThis Is Happiness (2019) is set in the same town several years later: Christmas season 1962, a period when small-town machinations of all kinds come to a head. These are presented in Williams' signature prose style: sinuous sentences that may seem at first a bit hard to follow but in short order reveal themselves to be full of music, humor, and insight. Like the work of writers from James Joyce to Anna Burns, Williams' novel is one of those books that teach you how to read it, ultimately staking out its own linguistic territory in your brain. As for the idea that "nothing happens here"--nothing except that 12-year-old Jude Quinlan finds an abandoned and possibly dead baby in a courtyard; the assistant priest is scheming furiously to replace his geriatric superior, who keeps wandering off, both physically and mentally; and Dr. Jack Troy, healer, brains, and backbone of Faha, fears he has made a terrible mistake. His oldest daughter, 29-year-old Ronnie, who after her mother's death and the departure of two younger sisters still keeps house for her father and helps him run his practice, was courted by a young man named Noel Crowe. Troy shut down the relationship, thinking the boy unsuitable, but now gleans that Ronnie has been inquiring about Crowe, apparently crushed to learn he's emigrated to the U.S. Overcome with remorse, the good doctor cooks up a daring if cockamamie plan. One need not have read the first installment to enjoy the second; reading them in the opposite order is just as good. Treat yourself to this.

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September 16, 2024
A Christmas miracle lies at the heart of this tender offering from Irish writer Williams (Four Letters of Love). In December 1962, 12-year-old Jude Quinlan and his father take their cows to the Christmas fair in Faha, a small town where “all commentators agreed: nothing happened here.” The town’s reputation begins to change after Jude, waiting for his father to emerge from the pub, finds a baby at the back wall of the church. Jude brings the baby to the local physician, Jack Troy, whose grown daughter, Ronnie, names her Noelle. The Troys hide the baby to prevent her from being taken away and placed in an orphanage. Jack, regretting that he disapproved of Ronnie’s former suitor, Noel Crowe, who now lives in America, concocts a far-fetched plan to lure Noel back to Ireland, so he and Ronnie can get married and take the child to the U.S. to raise. Jack runs into a series of hurdles as he tries to bring off his plan while keeping the baby a secret from his neighbors. Williams works up to the miraculous event with steady pacing, breathing life into the characters and crafting a memorable sense of place. For those looking to get into the holiday spirit, this is just the ticket. Agent: Caroline Michel, PFD.