History of the Rain :By the author of Four Letters of Love, now a major film starring Helena Bonham Carter and Pierce Brosnan
History of the Rain :By the author of Four Letters of Love, now a major film starring Helena Bonham Carter and Pierce Brosnan
paperback
Published:
12 March, 2015
Popular Books by Niall Williams
View All Books by Niall Williams
Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2014
By the author of Four Letters of Love, the international bestseller now a major film starring Helena Bonham Carter and Pierce Brosnan
‘A love letter to literature and storytelling’ Eimear McBride
‘I am utterly obsessed with Niall Williams’ Ann Patchett
In her attic room, with the rain rushing down the windows, Ruthie Swain is trying to find her father through stories.
Brought home after a collapse, she lies surrounded by her father’s library of three thousand, nine hundred and fifty-eight books. But Ruthie’s story, and the story of the Swains before her, is rooted not in these books’ pages, but in the land – fourteen rain-sodden acres of earth useless for farming, but teeming with stories.
From her bed, Ruthie writes Ireland, with its weather, its rivers, its lilts, and its lows. The stories she recounts bring back to life multiple generations buried in this soil - and they might just bring her back into the world again, too.
‘Extremely moving ... By the final chapter I was weeping’ Sunday Times
‘Dazzling … Paragraph after paragraph begs you to stop and reread it, to relish the lilt of it in your inner ear’ The Times
‘Beautiful and enchanting … A novel that weaves a love of literature into its own moving tale’ Guardian
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9781408852057 |
| ISBN10 | 1408852055 |
| Number Of Pages | 368 |
| Item Weight | 260 g |
| Product Dimensions | 128 x 196 x 28 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |
| Format | paperback |
Media Reviews
This is an important new book and the rewards increase tenfold the further into the story one gets * Radio Times, Book at Bedtime *
A surge of language, beautiful and enchanting, a novel that weaves a love of literature into its own moving tale * Guardian *
Extremely moving, poignantly capturing Ruth’s doomed childhood relationship with her twin brother. By the final chapter I was weeping * Sunday Times *
The Anne Enright award for the Irish novel most guaranteed to make you cry … Niall Williams wins this year’s award on the strength of his title alone … Suffused with warmth and humour * Independent on Sunday *
Deeply allusive, infectiously hopeful … Somewhere between bildungsroman, epic and family saga, History of the Rain is an unashamedly unfashionable, lyrical paean to the pleasure of reading and to serendipity … A fresh and powerful reminder that: “We tell stories to heal the pain of living * Daily Telegraph *
A beautiful, poetic tale … One to read slowly and savour * irish Independent *
GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
Niall Williams was born in Dublin in 1958. His critically acclaimed and bestselling fiction has been shortlisted for the Irish Times Literature Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the IMPAC Award. Williams’ debut novel Four Letters of Love, an international bestseller, has been adapted by the author for screen and will star Helena Bonham-Carter, Pierce Brosnan and Gabriel Byrne. His most recent novel Time of the Child was an instant Irish Times bestseller and was awarded the Kerry Group Novel of the Year Award. He lives in Kiltumper in County Clare, with his wife, Christine.
niallwilliams.com