Niall Williams Books In Order

Boy Books In Publication Order

Boy in the World (2007)
Boy and Man (2008)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

Four Letters of Love (1997)
As It Is in Heaven (1999)
The Way You Look Tonight (2000)
The Fall of Light (2001)
Only Say the Word (2005)
John (2008)
History of the Rain (2014)
This Is Happiness (2019)

Short Stories/Novellas In Publication Order

The Unrequited (2021)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

O Come Ye Back to Ireland (With: ) (1987)
When Summer’s in the Meadow (With: ) (1989)
The Pipes are Calling (With: ) (1990)
The Luck of the Irish (With: ) (1995)
In Kiltumper (With: ) (2021)

Boy Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Short Stories/Novellas Book Covers

The Unrequited
(2021)

Non-Fiction Book Covers

Niall Williams Books Overview

Boy in the World

A beautiful and moving novel about a young boy’s journey from childhood to adulthood from the bestselling author of Four Letters of Love Niall Williams draws us into life in a small village in Ireland where a boy is growing up and making his first tentative steps to becoming a man. Questioning everything in an attempt to make sense of the world he is discovering through books, he is on the cusp of an understanding of what it is to be a man. But, when the Master, his caring old guardian, gives him a letter from his long dead mother, his world comes crashing down. Learning for the first time that his father is not dead, as he had been led to believe, the boy must relearn everything he thought he knew. He sets out to find his father, piecing together the information he can glean from his mother’s letter: he is a journalist for the BBC, he has lived in London, and he is a Muslim. The boy sets out to find his father. Arriving in London, disorientated and alone, he finds himself at the centre of a terrorist attack as the BBC is bombed and hundreds are killed and injured. Taken under the caring wing of Sister Bridget, a nun also caught up in the chaos, he refuses to allow this catastrophe to move him from his goal; he must find his father. This is the heart warming tale of a young boy trying to find his way in a changing world, a world where no one is safe and where terrorists seek to destroy all that civilisation holds dear.

Four Letters of Love

‘When I was twelve years old God spoke to my father for the first time. God didn’t say much. He told my father to be a painter and left it at that…
‘ So begins Niall Williams’ magical tale about love and destiny. Nicholas Coughlan and Isabel Gore were made for each other but fate doesn’t always take the easiest or the most obvious route to true love. For a start, Nicholas and Isabel have never met and nor are they likely to, without some kind of divine intervention. But as God, ghosts, a series of coincidences and seemingly chance events and encounters conspire to bring the couple together, other often more human forces attempt to keep them apart. ‘What will be, will be,’ of course, but that doesn’t guarantee a happy ever after ending, nor answer the question ‘Will they, won’t they?’ Written in a lyrical, lilting tone, ‘Four Letters of Love‘ is a glorious, uplifting story about faith, about seizing the moment, believing in your instincts and acting on impulse and about following your heart, no matter where it may lead.

As It Is in Heaven

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. Even though the worldly, beautiful musician seems incapable of giving her heart, love seizes Stephen Griffin…
unbidden and shaking every particle of his spirit. Stephen’s ailing father sees it and fears for his naive son. Nelly Grant, the green grocer, predicted it and welcomes its sheer joy. Moses Mooney, the blind musician, has sensed its coming. None, however, can envision the depth and consequence of this union. For Gabriella will change not only Stephen’s life but, in the deepest sense, the lives of everyone around them.’As It Is in Heaven‘ evokes the magical essence of romance and its miraculous ability to grace even the darkest lifewith light. Splendidly crafted and charged with poignancy, it firmly establishes Niall Williams as a master storyteller in the grand tradition of Irish literature.

The Fall of Light

An epic tale of Irelands people in the nineteenth century. The story begins in the famine stricken Ireland of the mid nineteenth century. The Foley family have always been proud and fearless, shaped by their fight for survival. But now they have lost their home. And they have also lost Emer, wife of Francis and mother to the four boys, Tomas, Finbar, Finan, and the youngest, Teige, a solemn twelve year old who possesses an extraordinary gift. With nothing now to hold them they set off across Ireland, in search of a new start in the untenanted lands of the west. Disaster strikes, however, and the brothers are scattered across the country and overseas. Their adventures teach them about the world outside as they travel through Europe, Africa and the New World; each of them must endure many trials and learn much before their wanderings can end.

Only Say the Word

Jim Foley loves his parents, his brother, his sister, Dickens and God; later, he loves Kate enough to make her his wife and to shape his life around her and later still, he loves his children, Jack and Hannah. This is Jim’s story, from his early days in County Clare to early adulthood in America, and then back to Clare again. From happy ever after to death do us part; from beginnings to endings to fresh starts; from child, to husband to father, it is the story of the people and places in Jim’s life; the story of his hopes, his fears and fantasies, his ever evolving relationships and the books that remain always constant, even while his family and future are uncertain. Deeply personal and written in Niall William’s lyrical, lilting prose, Only Say the Word is both a love letter and a story about love, in its many forms and guises. About unspoken and unrequited love, about undying devotion, untested or unquestioning faith, about the death of love and loved ones, and the love that outlives them all, about god, home and family, about ties that bind and sometimes divide, about unconditional love and love with strings attached, Williams’s fourth novel is ultimately about the redeeming, enduring nature of love the belief that, sometimes, when it’s all you have, love has to be enough.

John

In the tradition of Jim Crace’s Quarantine and Anita Diamant s The Red Tent, John is a stunning, lyrical reimagining of John the Apostle in the final years of his life, by the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of Four Letters of Love. At a time when Americans remain skeptical about religion but still thirst for spiritual fulfillment, Niall Williams s extraordinary and masterful new novel reveals a universally appealing message of hope and love. In the years following the death of Jesus Christ, John the Apostle, now a frail, blind old man, lives in forced 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, and, inevitably, one of John s followers disavows Christ s divinity and breaks away from the community, threatening to change the course of Christianity. When the Roman emperor lifts the banishment of Christians, John and his followers are permitted to return to Ephesus, a chaotic world of competing religious sects where Christianity is in danger of vanishing. It is against this turbulent background and inspired by Jesus s radical message of love and forgiveness that John comes to dictate his Gospel. Immensely impressive and based on actual historical events John is at once an ambitious and provocative reimagining of the last surviving apostle and a powerful look at faith and how it lives and dies in the hearts of men.

O Come Ye Back to Ireland (With: )

Niall and Christine left their careers in New York City for a simpler, more authentic life in a cottage outside the tiny village of Kilmihil in County Clare. ‘Their tale is a delightful romance.’ The New York Times Book Review

When Summer’s in the Meadow (With: )

This story takes up where O Come Ye Back to Ireland left off. After learning they can’t have children, Niall and Christine adopt their only child, Diedre, and continue their story in the pastoral farming community in the wild and beautiful Irish countryside.

The Pipes are Calling (With: )

With two year old Deidre in her baby seat, Niall Williams and Christine Breen take to the backroads and boreens of Ireland in their third book.

The Luck of the Irish (With: )

In their fourth book, Williams and Breen, the authors of O Come Ye Back to Ireland, When Summer’s in the Meadow, and The Pipes Are Calling chronicle their life and adventure in this beautiful country, where fewer and fewer Irish men and women are lucky enough to be able to live.