The Good People
A thrilling story of love, folklore and superstition from the author of Burial Rites
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5,0 • 1 Bewertung
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- 5,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize.
Based on true events, The Good People is Hannah Kent's engrossing novel about superstition and devoted love.
'An even better novel than Burial Rites — a starkly realised tale of love, grief and misconceived beliefs – Sunday Times
Ireland, 1825.
Nóra, bereft after the sudden death of her husband, finds herself alone and caring for her young grandson Micheál, who cannot speak or walk. What happened to the healthy, happy grandson she met when her daughter was still alive?
Mary arrives in the valley to help Nóra just as the whispers are spreading: stories of unexplained misfortunes, of illnesses, and rumours that Micheál is a changeling child who is bringing bad luck to the valley.
Nance has lived in the valley all of her life. She is a healer who knows how to use the plants and berries of the woodland; she understands the magic in the old ways. And she might be able to help Micheál . . .
As these three women are drawn together in the hope of restoring Micheál, their world of folklore and belief, of ritual and stories, tightens around them. It will lead them down a dangerous path, and force them to question everything they have ever known.
'An imaginative tour de force . . . exquisite' – Daily Mail
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Faith, folk-knowledge, and fear coalesce in remote 19th-century Ireland in this second novel from Kent (Burial Rites). When her daughter and husband die amid what the community considers dark omens unmoving birds, mysterious lights, a raging storm N ra Leahy dreads a future of backbreaking work in order to pay her rent and care for her four-year-old grandson Miche l. Once hale and healthy, the boy was delivered to N ra's doorstep after the sudden death of his mother mute, unable to walk, and starving. Bitter gossip at the well and by the hearth questions how N ra's luck soured so quickly, why the valley cows' milk is drying up, and why none of the townspeople ever see the ailing boy. Rumors and dark signs weigh on N ra until she seeks help outside of her comfort zone: old Nance Roche's knowledge of the Good People the fairies. But the old hermit's cures of nettle, nightshade, and foxglove bring nearly as much risk as reward. Defying the valley's newly appointed priest, Nance, N ra, and her young housemaid, Mary Clifford, set out to determine whether Miche l is a boy or the fairy changeling the valley fears him to be. Though rife with description, backstory, and a surfeit of gossip, the book's pervasive sense of foreboding and clear narrative arcs keep the tale immersive. Kent leads the reader on a rocky, disquieting journey to the misty crossroads of Irish folk beliefs past and future.
