John

In February, Bloomsbury USA, will publish John—a stunning, lyrical re-imagining of John the Apostle in the final years of his life. Now a frail, blind old man, John lives in exile on the desolate island of Patmos with a small group of his disciples. Together the group has endured their banishment, but after years awaiting Christ’s return, fissures form within their faith.

John is an ambitious and provocative re-imagining of the last surviving apostle and a powerful look at faith and how it lives and dies in the hearts of men.

Pre-publication Review from Kirkus Review…

“Irish novelist Williams takes spiritual issues seriously—and continues to write compellingly about them.”

John is also being published in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada in September.

Boy and Man

Following the success of Boy in the World, Boy and Man will be published by HarperCollins UK in June of 2008. It continues the journey of the boy Jay as he volunteers in Ethiopia and leaves the world of adolescence behind. In keeping with the magic of Boy in the World and following in the tradition of Dickensian storytelling, Boy and Man, comes together like a masterful jigsaw.

Boy In the World

Boy in the World tells the story of a quest. The boy, an everyman for a new generation, grows up in a village in the West of Ireland in the care of his grandfather. On the morning of his Confirmation he is given a letter from his long dead mother and his world shatters.

It is a journey that takes him from Ireland to London, from there across Europe and into Africa. He has extraordinary encounters and those whom he passes are often changed by their meetings. Boy in the World is a remarkable story of a boy seeking his way in a changing world where all he holds dear seems to be in danger.

The Unrequited

The Unrequited opens with the arrival in Oslo of Raphael Newell, a Dublin accountant. Someone who has always previously lived on the margins of life, Ray has come to Norway to find the married woman he has fallen in love with. Rejuvenated and invigorated by the experience of being in love, Ray sees the world differently; everything and everyone around him is transformed, and he feels for the first time that he has really come alive. Recounting the couple's first meeting alongside Ray's Norwegian quest, The Unrequited is both love story and fable, both a story for our times and—in the themes of love, life and loss it explores—one that is timeless; a story for all ages, in all senses of the word.

Only Say the Word

In a cottage in County Clare, Jim Foley sits before a white screen and begins a love letter to his wife, hoping the words he writes will bring her closer to him. It is the autumn of two thousand and one. In the upstairs rooms of the cottage, his children, Jack and Hannah, are asleep.

Retracing the journey of Jim’s life, from childhood in County Clare to young adulthood in America, this is a story of desire, of stolen books, missed moments and contemporary fatherhood. After half a lifetime of grief, it is in language alone that Jim now places his trust; through the written word he imagines he can express all that has been unsaid in his life, so that love lost can be refound and restored.

"She stands beside me a thousand miles away. ‘What’s this book about?’ I don’t know what to say. I could say many things. I could say its about the truth, say that it begins with my family, but is about love and whether love can endure in the pages of a book. I could tell her its about how to carry on, about how if you are a storyteller you tell stories, you tell them to make sense of what is random and harsh and cruel in the world, but all this seems portentous and absurd now…’It’s a short book about love,’ I say."

"A strong, simple tale which takes the ingredients of tragedy and turns them into something life-affirming"
- Marie Claire

"Reading Niall Williams makes you want to cuddle in front of a fire, holding on to a loved one so tightly you might never let them go. Williams writes superlatively about love and loss"
- Time Out

"Only Say the Word is a book about acceptance of the past and about an attempt to move towards a fragile, redemptive peace. It is heart-rending and unforgettable."
- The Economist

"For Jim, words are a kind of redemption – and nobody reading this subtle, meditative and beautifully written book will be inclined to disagree"
- Sunday Times

"Niall Williams has written a wonderful book, uplifting and hopeful. Give it to everyone…"
- Sunday Tribune

Hear Niall discussing Only Say the Word

Purchase the book: Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com

The Fall of Light

The Fall of Light is an epic story that follows the fortunes of the four Foley brothers in the Ireland of the 19th Century, a time of poverty, famine, mystery and redemption. Inevitably, the Foleys are scattered, each to his own road and his own future. The novel leads them from the bittersweet heart of Ireland beyond its shores to Europe, America and Africa. Williams guides his characters through fire and water, earth and sky, magic and reality, loss and consolation, until finally they come to terms with their own freedom and dreams.

"He was at the place his father dreamed, he thought. He was there on the western shore where they were to begin to realize Francis Foley's vision. But it was in ruins now. He saw the vastness of the sea was itself part of that wild country as was it's great and million-starred sky and he dropped to his knees there in the sand and felt the despair of loss and loneliness. And he put his hands together to pray and turned to the constellations that were cold and impassive and falling through the darkness ages away, and, knowing no God who knew him, he looked to Pegasus in the south and to it prayed the wordless prayers that rose off his soul."

"Williams' prose is bathed in poetry and moonlight."
-The Times

"Fable-like...with a Celticized magical realism and sheer power of storytelling."
- Esquire

"Williams' language is rich to the point of bursting...A brave, generous and wholehearted book."
- Time Out

Purchase the book: Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com

As It Is In Heaven

"It was a season of love in the afternoon; of slow time and long caresses, of strawberries...passing from mouth to mouth like the wet, ripe and softly bruised essence of pleasure itself..."

Time has already stopped for Stephen Griffin when he moves into the little house by the sea. Twenty-eight years old and haunted by death, the tall, awkward, shy schoolteacher is content to care for his father in Dublin and let life pass him by. Then a miracle appears: a string ensemble from Venice and, with it, a violinist named Gabriella Castoldi.

As It Is In Heaven evokes the magical essence of romance and its miraculous ability to grace even the darkest life with light. It is splendidly crafted and charged with poignancy, and firmly establishes Niall Williams as a storyteller in the grand tradition of Irish literature.

"God and Love and death can take care of themselves. A far greater mystery is the marvellous existence of a writer like Niall Williams...The novel is all delicious coincidence and tragedy, as extraordinary lives begin to unravel and intertwine...You might say that Williams really does write like an angel."
-The Guardian

"Intricate and tender...there is a deftness to the artistry, a sophistication in the telling of their love story that captivates brilliantly."
-Sunday Times

Short-listed for the Irish Times Literature Prize 1999

Purchase the book: Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com

Four Letters Of Love

Nicholas Coughlan and Isabel Gore were made for each other but how will they ever know it? Four Letters Of Love is a novel about destiny, acceptance, and the tragedies and miracles of everyday life. Most of all it is an unforgettable tale about the illuminating power of love, and how all of our stories meet in the end.

"Occasionally you have the great good fortune to read a novel which you devour as if it were a thriller, want it to last forever...but finally put down with great whoops of joy. Niall Williams' narrative unfolds with lyrical grace. Four Letters Of Love rolls with clarity and courage towards a heartbreaking affirmation of magic, miracles and the power of human love."
-The Times

"A novel about love, but even more about the longing that goes with love...a deeply satisfying work of art."
-Sunday Times

"...unfurls like some epic poem which has been handed down in song generation by generation. Half fable, half tragic realism, its musical rhythm is unforgettable."
-Daily Mail

"This book can rightfully claim its place among the classics of Irish literature."
-Belfast Telegraph

A New York Times Notable Book Of The Year.