This Is Happiness

Comic and poignant in equal measure. - The New Yorker

"Escaping into the pages of "This Is Happiness feels as much like time travel as enlightenment. Halfway through, I realized that if I didn't stop underlining passages, the whole book would be underlined.... Williams is engaged in the careful labor of teaching us to hear the subtler melodies drowned out by the din of modern life... This is a story about the beginnings of love and the persistence of affection, about the loss of faith and the recovering of belief. If you're a reader of a certain frame of mind, craving a novel of delicate wit laced with rare wisdom, this, truly, is happiness." --Ron Charles, Washington Post

"This big-hearted story is an intimate study of a small place on the brink of change." --New York Times

"An often delightful, rural rhapsody." --Wall Street Journal

A breahtaking tale... Williams, a Man Booker Prize-longlisted author for his 'History of the Rain, ' is a master of Irish storytelling, crafting sentences that tempt the reader to double back and read again - and characters that get under your skin. - The Associated Press

"Warm and whimsical, sometimes sorrowful, but always expressed in curlicues of Irish lyricism, this charming book makes varied use of its electrical metaphor, not least to express the flickering pulse of humanity. A story both little and large and one that pulls out all the Irish stops." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"With a beckoning gentleness that belies the deeper philosophies at play, superb Irish author Williams (History of the Rain, 2014) offers a lilting, magical homage to time and redemption, and a stirring, sentimental journey into the mysteries of love and the possibilities of friendship." --Booklist, starred review

"A charming, often moving book, enriched by beautifully drawn characters and brilliantly depicted scenes from country life." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

"The beauty and power of Irish author Niall Williams' writing lies in his ability to invest the quotidian with wonder. A truly peerless wordsmith, he even makes descriptions of gleaming white appliances and telephone wire sing...the book is hilarious among its many other virtues. Buy, rent, get your hands on this book somehow and savor every word of it. Its title says it all: Plunging into This is Happiness is happiness indeed." --BookPage, starred review

"Glorious and lyrical prose . . . This novel is a delight." --Publishers Weekly

"This Is Happiness is resplendent with metaphor. It speaks to the vital role friendship and a tight-knit community can play in strengthening the human spirit. - Shelf Awareness, starred Review

"Niall Williams' latest novel should catapult him into the realm of globally fashionable Irish writers." --The Financial Times

"Admirers of Niall Williams' Booker longlisted History of the Rain will not be disappointed to learn that his latest novel is possibly even better." --The Observer

"A kind of tectonic movement from spring into summer, marked by the rhythms of village life . . . He has a humorist's eye, and his own fond amusement at the people he writes about shines out through the writing." --The Guardian

"Williams has the eye of a poet and the raconteur's knack for finding a tale in the most unpromising nook of everyday life." --The Daily Mail

"Wise and redemptive . . . Wildly comic . . . With his silver ear for speech and extreme attentiveness to the Heaneyesque 'music of everyday', Mr Williams treads softly on the dreams of youth and memories of old age. Enjoy!" --Country Life

"[This] enchanting novel recalls rural Ireland on the cusp of change . . . A delightful affirmation of life and love." --Sunday Independent

"Four Letters of Love is formed with an unusual authority and grace, and it is filled with marvelous characters, large and small, all depicted with an understated veracity." --Notable Book of the Year, The New York Times Book Review on FOUR LETTERS OF LOVE

"A compelling meditation on love, art and the vicissitudes of fate." --San Francisco Chronicle on FOUR LETTERS OF LOVE

"A surge of language, beautiful and enchanting, a novel that weaves a love of literature into its own moving tale." --The Guardian, on HISTORY OF THE RAIN

"A glorious celebration of [Ireland's] storytelling tradition . . . Sweep[s] the reader joyfully along." --The Daily Telegraph on HISTORY OF THE RAIN