Book your tickets for a Niall Williams WORD Christchurch event tomorrow night at Tūranga.
6pm to 7pm, Tuesday 21 April, Tautoru / TSB Space, Hapori | Community, Level 1, Tūranga
“What if it’s people that have a higher sense of what’s right and wrong than those conscripted to enforce it?”
The Time of the Child, p.241
Niall Williams was born in Dublin in 1958. He read English and French Literature at University College Dublin and lectured one year at the Université de Caen. After a few years in New York, he returned to Ireland (1985) with his family to make a living as a writer. Four letters of Love (1997) was his first fiction novel. It became an international bestseller, and it was brought to the screen with Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham-Carter and Gabriel Byrne playing some of the main characters.
To choose a favourite Niall Williams novel feels like picking a favourite child; an almost impossible task. Personally, it would be a tie between Four Letters of Love and The time of the Child. I enjoyed Four letters of Love's idea that one should trust destiny and have the courage to follow one’s gut feeling no matter what, while it also explores love in all its richness and flavours. Ultimately, it is about faith that there is purpose and that fate has good things in store for you.
Time of the Child is a moving, compassionate narrative about family, and, in a way, re-writing its traditional definition, as a father and a daughter take in an abandoned baby, defying Irish and religious conventions. As the story unfolds, new, stronger family ties emerge between father and daughter and the orphaned baby, whom they love and protect fiercely, as if it were their own (grand)child.
Niall Williams’ novels are poetic gems about unsung heroes in small communities, who do the right thing, even if it means going against the powerful, almighty Catholic Church which dominates Irish society. Williams dissects the impact of religion on both the individual and collective, the controlling role of Catholicism as an institution, while advocating true Christianity with a message of love, kindness and compassion.
Both novels left me with regained confidence in life and humanity. Niall Williams addresses the topics with delicacy and subtlety. True meaning and depth are often suggested in silence, in the space between the lines.
Niall Williams’ novels
View books by Niall Williams in our collection
- Four letters of Love (1997)
- As it is in Heaven (1999)
- The way you look tonight (2000)
- The Fall of Light (2002)
- Only say the Word (2004)
- Boy in the World (2006)
- Boy and Man (2008)
- John (2008)
- History of the Rain (2014)
- This is Happiness (2019)
- Time of the Child (2024)
More about Niall
Tanya
Matuku Takotako: Sumner Centre
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