In 2021, I loved this book by Niall Williams, giving it 5 stars, so a blog reader last year encouraged me to read this one at Christmastime, and I’m grateful they did.

This one takes place in the same remote town in Ireland that the other one did. It is a story about an unexpected baby arriving at Christmas time, and what a miracle that can be. It centers around the town doctor as the main character, as well as his unmarried daughter. Both had missed a chance at love and were settling into the gaping hum drum of their life, when in December they were upended by the wave of love that comes with a newborn child.

Time of the Child is a very perceptive, insightful, luminously written book, laden with so much detail and sagacity to be wonderful, while also making the pace of it very slow. At the right time that snail’s pace can be just what is needed, but I started this in last December, which was a time that was too busy for me to finish such a plodding beauty of a book.  I’ve only finished it now; while it is a Christmas book, the pacing may be better suited for January, when it is just as dark and rainy as in the novel.

It looks like there are two more of Niall Williams’ books set in Faha, so I will return and read those sometime. There is an overlap of characters in these, so you might want to read them in succession. I commend this author to you, and I give this one four stars, mostly because it took me so long to savor it.