Welcome to Litsy!

I adored this novel set in 1962 fictional Faha (west Ireland). Gorgeous, real characters and infused with a sense of place & feeling of being in a rainy small town. A gentle pace but drama on every page as the characters engage with each other, make choices & battle with their conscience. Most of all the writing is sublime, the sentences finely turned but unshowy, with an Irish warmth & sensibility. I loved the deadpan humour too. A beautiful book

“Stories on an island travel sideways”….. something to that effect. 💚

Perfect description of this intimately detailed portrait of a doctor, his daughter, and their village during the Christmas season of 1962. Something unexpectedly upends the doctor‘s guarded privacy and equilibrium.

Simply gorgeous prose with quotable gems every page. I enjoyed This is Happiness, but I loved this one.

I‘m a big fan of Williams- of how he describes daily life expertly and beautifully, and he does the same in this novel. I felt it moved too slow (even though I like that about his writing). The plot was interesting at times, but didn‘t hit with the same punch that others had. Good, but not great.

As long as you go into this knowing that you‘ll have to slow your reading way down, you‘ll be fine. Williams‘ writing is dense & beautiful, with descriptions that bring you so close to the reality of the person, place & thing that you‘ll come out of the story feeling as if you were there. The child in question doesn‘t appear until halfway through the story and by then you‘ve become thoroughly acquainted with the characters of Faha & their lives.

Just loved this book. It took me a while to get into it but so glad I kept going. By the time the story unfolded I had a good handle on the main characters. I had to really concentrate at times on his beautiful writing. Good tears at the end for me. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I‘d never thought I‘d bail on a Niall Williams but there you are. I am a hundred pages in and have read about dozens of people whose names and background I can‘t remember. The book is so slow, the sentences so long and the promised child hasn‘t even showed up yet! It‘s probably me but I feel too impatient to stick with it. #FoodAndLit 🇮🇪

#WeeklyForecast 10/25

I am completely absorbed by Wild Dark Shore. I am reading it slowly because I don‘t want it to end. It‘s so good again!
The tagged is my choice for #FoodAndLit 🇮🇪 and Help Wanted is from the #ToB longlist. Road Ends I am mixing audio with print.
In the mean time I am waiting for the ordered #InternationalBooker longlisted books, for the #WP #fiction longlist and for the start of the #LitsyToB25.

Living the life 😜💕

Enjoyed it.

Ever since boyhood, the curate had found a secret thrill in the labyrinthine contrivances of mystery novels: that these were set exclusively in a seaside England, where murder was more plentiful, that they were populated by a circular cast of changing names but set character mattered not at all, for the appeal was the same since curiosity first met construction, and was the same one that occupied him now in Troy's kitchen: How was it done?

This is what happened in Faha over the Christmas of 1962, in what became known in the parish as the time of the child.

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.

#Firstlines

I‘ve been off of Litsy for a while and it‘s great to be back! Time of the Child was one of my favorite reads of 2024. This picture features some of my other favorites of last year. Here‘s to a great new year of reading. Cheers! 🥂

Beautiful slow paced story set in a small Irish town during the 1962 Christmas season. Story focused on community and family. Loved the ending, I did feel that it dipped in the middle of the novel. 4 🌟

Beautiful writing. Lovely story. But I grew a little weary of the linguistic gymnastics. What may take a sentence or two was always described in a page or two. Overall 3.5 stars. It was a very lovely story with beautiful writing. I just grew anxious for the end. 😘

Oh!! ❤️❤️ This book is BRAND NEW from the library! I am the first person to crack it open! That makes me so happy!

Well Louise Penny will need to be put on hold. Library holds showed up. I only have 7 days to read Time of the Child so I have to hurry on to that one. My Favourite Terrible Thing is for our book club and I couldn‘t resist a new John Banville.