This Is Happiness by Niall Williams

This is a lyrical and very Irish coming-of-age story, well-worth reading.

The story begins when Noe looks back at his youth, and remembers his path to maturity. It takes a leap back in time to when he decided to leave the seminary, and found himself at a loss. He stayed with his extremely old-fashioned grandparents in a  village which seemingly hadn't changed for centuries.  When Christy, a lodger, came to work on the electricity, and to search for his old love, Annie, Noe's life changed When he fell in love himself, he had to work out what was really important.

This is a beautifully-written, extremely evocative and moving book. You can almost see the misty sunshine and smell the freshly-mown grass in the Irish village. However, it is written in a stream-of-consciousness style, and I am not a big fan of that kind of writing, so I found it difficult to read at times.

I read another book by Niall Williams many years ago, which I preferred.  I think that it was Four Letters of Love , which Mum also enjoyed.

I received a free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

EDITION	Hardcover
ISBN	9781526609335
PRICE