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Book Summary and Reviews of Time of the Child by Niall Williams

Time of the Child by Niall Williams

Time of the Child

by Niall Williams

  • Critics' Consensus (5):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • Published:
  • Nov 2024, 304 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

From the author of This Is Happiness, a compassionate, life-affirming novel about the Christmas season that transforms the small Irish town of Faha.

Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from the town. His eldest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father's shadow, and remains there, having missed one chance at love – and passed up another offer of marriage from an unsuitable man.

But in the Advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy's lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care. As the winter passes, father and daughter's lives, the understanding of their family, and their role in their community are changed forever.

Set over the course of one December in the same village as Williams' beloved This Is Happiness, Time of the Child is a tender return to Faha for readers who know its charms, and a heartwarming welcome to new readers entering for the very first time.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
  1. Why did the doctor wait to attend to the priest at the beginning of the story when Father Tom was struggling to remember whose birthday the church was celebrating that December? Do you think it was the right thing to do—to wait? Do you understand his hesitancy?
  2. Why was the doctor unable to tell Annie Mooney about his feelings for her? What was it that stopped him from telling her how he felt while she was alive? Do you think she returned his feelings? Does it matter if she did or didn't?
  3. Many characters suffer from illness throughout the novel, from alcoholism to dementia to cancer. How do the different family members deal with their loved ones' pain?
  4. What does this passage mean to you? "Although invisible to...
Please be aware that this discussion may contain spoilers!

See what our members are saying about this book in our Community Forum.

What are your reading this week? (12-19-2024)
I finished Time of the Child by Niall Williams and Shadowplay by Joseph O'Connor. Two Irish titles back to back. I'm now reading an older book from by unread tbr: The Incarnations by Susan Barker....
-Anne_Glasgow


What are your reading this week? (12-12-2024)
I've read Trepasses, but not Night Swimmers (will look for it.) I discovered Niall Williams in the last few months, and cannot recommend Time of the Child highly enough!
-Evonne_Benedict


What are you reading this week? (12-05-2024)
I loved 'Time of the Child' so much, I'm now reading Niall Williams first, 'Four Letters of Love.' It's so good! A film version is due out early 2025.
-Evonne_Benedict


Which book or series would you like to see made into TV show or movie?
Time of the Child by Niall Williams would make a wonderful movie, although it would be hard to top the written words.
-Gabi_J


Christmas/Holiday books
I am currently reading "Time of the Child" by Niall Williams. @Anne_Glasgow if you liked Keegan, you might like this one. I am also looking forward to reading Benjamin Stevenson's "Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret." It is the third in his entertaining Ernest Cunningham series.
-Gabi_J


What are you reading this week? (11-21-2024)
I have started reading as well as listening to "Time of the Child" by Niall Williams. It hearkens of Patrick Taylor's Country Doctor series. I am not much of a holiday book reader but I can tell this one is a winner for me.
-Gabi_J

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"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." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"With its elegant plot, endearing characters and subtle humor, this is a lovely Christmas miracle of a book." —Library Journal (starred review)

"A Christmas miracle lies at the heart of this tender offering ... 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." ―Publishers Weekly

"A powerful pleasure to find myself back in Faha where the prose is luminous, the people irresistible, the stories mesmerizing, and it never stops raining." ―Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and Booth

"With writing so stunning, Time of The Child forces the reader to turn down page after page to always remember what genius is. Another glorious and touching novel from Niall Williams, one of the world's greatest storytellers." ―Anne Griffin, internationally bestselling author of When All Is Said

This information about Time of the Child was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Cathryn Conroy

A Literary Treasure: Exquisite Writing and a Heart-Wrenching Plot
Oh, the writing. Oh, the language. The words alone will transport you to December 1962 in rainy, windy, and cold Faha in the far west of Ireland. Read a few pages, and you'll want to snuggle under a blanket just to warm up. To heck with the story, the book should win an award just for the exquisite, hauntingly lyrical prose by author Niall Williams.

But the story is excellent, too—with one important caveat (see the paragraph below). The plot: An abandoned newborn is discovered in a cemetery on the night of the busy Faha Christmas fair, and she is so cold she must be dead. Without anyone else knowing, three people—two men and a boy—take the baby to the town doctor, who lives and works in a house with his eldest daughter, a 29-year-old who has never married. The baby isn't dead. The widowed doctor sees the joy this little girl brings to his own child and must concoct a way for them to keep the baby—something the Roman Catholic church and the Irish authorities would never allow of a spinster. Meanwhile, the infant's presence in their home must be an absolute secret so the baby isn't taken from them, but secrets are not kept long in tiny, gossipy Faha.

To get to this point in the book, one has to read the set-up, which places the reader into the center of Faha where we get to know its charming ways, eccentric people, and myriad mysteries. And it's a very long set-up at approximately 150 pages. Even with the extraordinary writing, I imagine some readers will be tempted to give up on the novel for the simple reason that nothing happens. This is one of those times that I urge you not to give in to that temptation. Keep reading because the payoff is remarkable.

Beginning on the first Sunday in Advent, this is an ideal book to read in December with allusions throughout the story to this liturgical season of waiting and expectation. There are themes of regrets for the past, but these are balanced with themes of hope and second chances for the future. Most of all, this is a book about family love.

This is a novel that I will think about long after I finish the last page. "Time of the Child" is a literary treasure.

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Author Information

Niall Williams Author Biography

Niall Williams was born in Dublin in 1958. He studied English and French literature at University College Dublin before graduating with a Master's degree in Modern American Literature. He moved to New York in 1980 where he married Christine Breen, whom he had met while she was a Master's student also at UCD, and took his first job opening boxes of books in Fox and Sutherland's bookshop in Mount Kisco. He later worked as a copywriter for Avon Books in New York City before leaving America with Chris in 1985 to attempt to make a life as a writer.

Niall and Christine moved on April 1st to the cottage in west Clare that Chris's grandfather had left eighty years before to find his life in America. In 1991 Niall's first play 'The Murphy Initiative' was staged at The Abbey Theatre in Dublin. ...

... Full Biography
Link to Niall Williams's Website

Other books by Niall Williams at BookBrowse
  • This Is Happiness jacket
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