Niall Williamson has had me rapt, smiling, worrying, caught up in the sometimes profound, often silly moments his people of Faha find themselves in, living in 1962 and this newly electrified village in Ireland. Doctor Troy is central in the village, providing care, somewhat aloof, living in the grand house with his oldest daughter, Ronnie. Here as December and Advent begin, the annual fair also happens bringing strangers and their goods to town.

When the fair is over and Faha calms to normal, there is an extra person found in the village, an infant, found by a boy and brought to Dr. Troy to save. The rest is this wonderful story. The prose is perfect, matching the moods of the story; pensive or moody when coping with constant rain or destroyed plans, happy or thankful when the sun finally shines on the rain-beaded countryside, and human(e) as a man sees into and learns truths of his heart.

This is a beautiful story, very much an Irish and Christmas story, and highly recommended.

Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC.

I loved revisiting Faha again this is a beautiful story full of holiday spirit.A wonderful story that was a delight the authors writing is so gorgeous so heart warming.#netgalley #timeofthechild.

4.5 Stars

<i>’The word love, said aloud, had the character of a swung thurible, the frankincense of it everywhere.’</i>

A story shared through memories of Christmas in 1962, this is set in Ireland in a small town where an infant is discovered by a young boy who has been patiently waiting for his father, who is enjoying the warmth inside a tavern. The baby is so still he believes that she is dead, but when the baby is seen by the doctor, he breathes life back into her.

In a way, this tiny babe manages to bring a new life to the doctor’s daughter, Ronnie, who watches over the infant throughout the night, and by morning, she has changed. There is a new meaning to her life, to protect this gift that she has been charged with. This child is a miracle. A Christmas miracle that changes their lives.

<i>’This is what happened in Faha over Christmas of 1962, and what became known in the parish as a time of the child.</i>

<i>‘To those who live there, Faha was perhaps the last place on earth to expect a miracle. It had neither the history nor the geography for it. The history was remarkable for the one fact upon which all commentators agreed: nothing happened here.</i>

A lovely story of love, compassion, and the child that leads them.


Pub Date: 19 Nov 2024

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Bloomsbury USA / Bloomsbury Publishing

Happy pub day to Time of the Child! This is THE book of the holiday season. It is quiet, warm, lovely, and a balm to the soul during a really tough season for many for many reasons. I loved every page.

First off, the formating for some reason was the worst it has ever been from Netgalley. There were incomplete sentences, random capitalization, no punctuation, etc. It made it hard for me to separate that from the actual story (who knew how essential proper capitalization and periods were to understanding a story?!).

That being said, I really enjoyed this sweet story of Faha and the characters in it. The story was quite slow (again that might have been to blame on the lack of formatting). This is one I will get on audio to see if the story flows better for me. Words to describe this book include, quiet, humble, and contemplative.

Thank you to netgalley for an advanced copy of this book. Publishes 11.19

Review will be shared by 11/24 on instagram via @readingkelsey

'Time of the Child' by Niall Williams is a 5-star Christmas book for me.
This is my first book by Williams but won't be my last. (which should I read next?)
Set in the small Irish town of Faha in 1962 it centers around the holiday preparations in the small village, and the long-time doctor and his eldest unmarried daughter.
The village is buzzing with preparations when something unexpected happens - a teen boy finds an abandoned baby and hurries her to the doctor.
He resuscitates the child, and his daughter goes about making a home for the baby (and motherhood for herself.)
But the new family member must remain a secret, for how could the 'mother' and 'grandfather' be allowed to keep her?
At the same time the doctor's relationship with his daughter changes as he realizes she now has a new purpose in life.
It is rare that a book makes me cry, but I was choked up in the last several pages. Not necessarily a measure of the quality of the book, but of its emotional impact.

This review is unique for me because I’m submitting it without having finished the book. I also rarely encounter so many typos in an ARC (I typically overlook them), but in this case, they were distracting. Despite having read only reading 20%, I would still rate this a 5-star read based on the strong foundation and tone. Williams’s mastery is clear, and I look forward to reading a fully edited copy after its publication. Thanks to NetGalley for the early access! I do appreciate it! I won’t be sharing a review on social media, until I read the published book since the version I've read doesn't reflect the book’s true quality.

In Time of the Child, Niall Willliams returns to the fictional remote village of Faha on the west coast of Ireland which was the setting of his critically acclaimed novel This is Happiness. This novel takes place during the Christmas season of 1962 four years after the electricity came to Faha. The town's widowed doctor, Jack Troy, who tends to his patients with the help of his eldest unmarried daughter, Ronnie, is in his late '60s and feeling a bit melancholy about what's left of his life, the two women he loved and lost, and the fact that he may have caused Ronnie to miss out on a chance at love and happiness.

As the town readies itself for Christmas, Dr. Troy and Ronnie's lives are turned upside down when a baby is found abandoned in the churchyard. Among the other townspeople who are central to this story are 12 year-old Jude Quinn who often bears responsibility for getting his drunken father home, a priest whose health is failing, and an elderly couple known as Doady and Ganga.

The author's writing is lyrical and rich with description and I found that it took a while to adjust to the rhythm of the storytelling. It starts off slow as the author takes his time spinning his tale and I was feeling a bit impatient at first but once the baby was found I was captivated by how the story played out and the beauty of the words.

Time of the Child is a gentle, beautifully crafted and heartwarming story of community that is perfect for the holiday season. This is easily read as a standalone but I wasn't ready to let go of these characters when I finished reading so will now have to go backward in time and read This is Happiness to learn what happened in the lives of the people of Faha prior to the 1962 Advent season.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for sending a digital ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Niall Williams returns to the village of Faha for this Christmastime story of an abandoned baby and the virgin mother who adopts it. This is a loose sequel to his last novel, This is Happiness. This time, the story focuses on the widowed and aloof village doctor and the adult daughter who has elected to stay by his side. Their lives are forever changed when, late one night, a young village boy appears at their door with a lifeless, abandoned baby that he found by the church gate while waiting to take his drunken father home from the pub. Doctor Troy embarks on a plan that, he hopes, will allow his daughter to keep the orphan child she has quickly come to love. Along with this main story, we also see into the simple, hard lives of many in the village, especially that of the aging, good natured priest slowly declining into dementia and the young curate trying to assume the role.
For me, Time of the Child, does not quite equal the exquisite earlier novel, This is Happiness, but that is a very high bar to achieve. Fans of Williams will certainly not want to miss this addition to his works, but I recommend it highly to anyone who enjoys poignant, beautifully written stories. Williams remains at the top of my must-read authors list.

This book is beautiful and touching. It's a joy to revisit the village of Faha and to again encounter the Troy family, along with so many others in the town. Williams writes beautifully of love and his characters are vivid on the page.

This book is a page turner from page 1. The story is full of beautifully crafted descriptions of the characters of Faha and the personality traits that inhabit this rural village. The underlying social issues are sensitively detailed and the rich human empathy of Dr Troy and his daughter tell a story of a country doctor that is living a vocation rather than a profession.
His compassion seeps through is gruff exterior and his desire to do the best sometimes conflicts with was is the social norm of the times.
The other characters in the story are also rich in humanity and the underlying support each member of the community has for each other their common challenges is often hidden under the typical banter of Irish country life.
The beautiful rich lyrical language is a pleasure to read.
Once I picked up the book, I could not put it down.

I've loved Niall Williams' other books, and TIME OF THE CHILD is a wonderful addition. The sense of place (we return to Faha) and time (Christmas/Advent, 1962) are wonderfully conveyed. I especially enjoyed how the town is turned upside down by the arrival of the baby. Ronnie and Doctor Troy are engaging and realistic characters, and, as the winter passes, their lives change. The pacing is contemplative, as with Williams' other books. I admire his poetic and evocative writing. Ultimately this is a beautiful story about compassion. Highly recommended for fans of literary fiction.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance e-galley; all opinions in my review are 100% my own.

Doctor Jack Troy has lived all his life in the small Irish town of Faha. Following in his father's footsteps, he's the town doctor and though being a native, he's managed to maintain a personal and professional distance from the villagers. A widower, he lives a quiet life with oldest daughter, Ronnie. His younger daughters have left home.
His life is unexpectedly upended when a local boy carrying a newborn baby girl found abandoned in the church cemetery, knocks on his door. Ronnie immediately succumbs to the charm of the infant and Troy knows it will break her heart to turn the baby over to Social Services. He swears the boy to secrecy and tries to keep the secret but when rumors begin to circulate he knows a solution must be found.
Williams is a wonderful storyteller and he brings the residents alive on the page and skillfully exposes Troy's tenderness and regrets. This is a touching tale of a father's love and a young woman's devotion to an abandoned child.
Thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for the opportunity to read this beautiful story.

This is such a beautiful story. It is the first Niall Williams book I have read. I was amazed by the amount of empathy he has for everyone of his characters. This was a lovely read.

The word love, said aloud, had the character of a swung thurible, the frankincense of it everywhere. from Time of the Child by Niall Williams

Days before Christmas, 1962, in a small Irish town, an infant is left behind on Fair Day when people fill the town with wares and animals for sale. The babe is discovered by a boy waiting in the dark for his father to leave the tavern. With the help of two men, they take the babe to the town doctor. The boy had seen death and knew the infant was dead. But Doctor Troy performed a miracle, breathing life into the infant. The doctor warned them to tell no one, and with his daughter Ronnie, keeps the infant alive through the night. The infant changes their lives in profound and joyful ways.

Spinster Ronnie has remained with her widowed father after her younger sister married and moved on with her life. She is content with her lot, loves the backwards town of Faha, the rain and the flooding river. But holding the babe fires a deep love she had never known. And it makes her father wonder if he did wrong, scaring off her suitors. He himself is heartbroken after the death of a women he loved in secret. Why does no one love my daughter, he wonders. He is determined that Ronnie keep the babe, which can only happen if she is married. He hatches a plan.

This is what happened in Faha over the Christmas of 1962, in what became known in the parish as the time of the child. from Time of the Child by Niall Williams

This is a lovely story, a Christmas miracle story. The narrative voice drew me in like a storyteller in a firelit room in December. Doctor Troy struggles with the big questions of human nature, the nature of God, and the power of human love.

The village and its inhabitants are beautifully described, the fair day’s sights and smells vivid, the variety of vendors and buyers who flood the streets and leave behind their detritus. It is a time of transition, some hovels still light by kerosene lanterns, televisions rare, doctors rarely called for but concerned neighbors suggest visits to the ailing.

All the complexities of living and dying are touched upon in this rich tale.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

The story of Faha continues. I was honoured to have the opportunity to read this ARC. I loved this story and the characters we followed.

It put me in the holiday spirit even in the middle of June. I would love to see this story continue on. Niall Williams is a brilliant author.

Faha is a fictional village in Ireland — in the civil parish of
Feakle, but in the Roman Catholic Parish of Caher Feakle, also called Killinena.
“Time of the Child” it’s written in memoir style and focuses on the locals, including 17 year old Noel Crowe, who has left the priesthood training to live with his grandparents and Christy, an elderly man who becomes a boarder with Noel’s grandparents.
The story is narrated through
Noel’s memories of his teenage years and explorers, the village’s church, music, theater, and pub.

“This is what happened in faha over Christmas of 1962, and what became known in the parish as a time of the child.
To those who live there , faha was perhaps the last place on earth to expect a miracle. It had neither the history nor the geography for it”.

“Real change is often only seen in hindsight. If you took a wrong turn and came into faha that Sunday morning, you would see a village like many others in the country, paused for mass, a mournful rain coming a small ways inside the open doors of Bourke’s and Clohessy’s, but no customers until the bell for Communion, when the tongues of the registers would be out once more”.

I had a very hard time connecting with this story.
Chalk it up to ‘me’ — not Niall Williams. He’s a beautiful skilled writer.
I usually love his books — novels and memoirs..
but I just struggled too much to stay interested.

3 stars — not lower - because Niall Williams just can’t write poorly….
It’s not his fault I struggled. I was simply the wrong reader for ‘this’ novel. Yet — I’ll read him
Again.