In his first novel since the Man Booker Prize-longlisted History of the Rain, Irish writer Niall Williams returns to western Ireland with a coming-of-age tale about the inexorable march of progress and the grip the past nevertheless maintains on the heart.
The villagers and the rain of rural Faha, County Clare, "had been married so long they no longer took notice of each other," but one spring in the late 1950s, the rain suddenly stops for a season that will forever shape the life of Noel "Noe" Crowe. His father sends him from his home in Dublin to stay with his grandparents in Faha, hoping to straighten out the 17-year-old after he leaves the seminary. Most importantly for the tiny village, the Electricity Supply Board comes to town, bringing the promise of jobs, the joy and threat of modernization, and Christy McMahon, who hires Noe to assist him in signing up the Fahaeans for electrical service.
Over the course of the sunny spell, Noe drinks more than his share of pints, has a calamitous accident and falls for all three of the village doctor's daughters. His adventures and misadventures help him take his first shaky steps into adulthood. Told by an almost 80-year-old Noe, the narrative pulses with an old man's grudging fondness for a younger self who was more foolish but also purer of heart. 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. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads