History of the Rain
By the author of Four Letters of Love, now a major film starring Helena Bonham Carter and Pierce Brosnan
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2014
By the author of Four Letters of Love, the international bestseller now a major film starring Helena Bonham Carter and Pierce Brosnan
'A love letter to literature and storytelling' Eimear McBride
'I am utterly obsessed with Niall Williams' Ann Patchett
In her attic room, with the rain rushing down the windows, Ruthie Swain is trying to find her father through stories.
Brought home after a collapse, she lies surrounded by her father's library of three thousand, nine hundred and fifty-eight books. But Ruthie's story, and the story of the Swains before her, is rooted not in these books' pages, but in the land – fourteen rain-sodden acres of earth useless for farming, but teeming with stories.
From her bed, Ruthie writes Ireland, with its weather, its rivers, its lilts, and its lows. The stories she recounts bring back to life multiple generations buried in this soil - and they might just bring her back into the world again, too.
'Extremely moving ... By the final chapter I was weeping' Sunday Times
'Dazzling … Paragraph after paragraph begs you to stop and reread it, to relish the lilt of it in your inner ear' The Times
'Beautiful and enchanting … A novel that weaves a love of literature into its own moving tale' Guardian
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Playwright, novelist, and nonfiction writer Williams's (Four Letters of Love) new novel has a unique voice and a droll, comic tone that takes a surprising, serious turn. Ruthie Swain collapsed at college ("I have had Something Amiss, Something Puzzling, and We're Not Sure Yet"), and is now confined to her bed at home in Ireland. Her father was a poet who left her an enormous quantity of books when he died, and she tries to find her way back to him through those books. Ruthie has a self-deprecating view of herself and the world, as well as a wry sense of humor. She uses literature to orient herself, searching for and creating connections in theory, while keeping the world around her, and the adoring Vincent Cunningham, at arm's length. The novel's "big secret" is obvious early on, and, therefore, the reveal is more of a relief than a surprise. One never buys that Ruthie is really sick it comes across more as a Victorian lady's psychosomatic problem than actual illness, even when the doctors sigh and shake their heads over blood work and send her to Dublin for treatment. The energy, tone, and premise of the book work well; the decision to view Ruthie's experiences through the lens of literature pays off. And though the novel doesn't have a strong resolution, Williams makes so many good stylistic and storytelling choices that his latest is well worth the read.
