Q&A with Niall Williams

 

 

 

Niall Williams is the author of the new novel Time of the Child. His other books include the novel This Is Happiness. He lives in County Clare, Ireland.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Time of the Child, and how did you create your character Dr. Jack Troy?

 

A: I think there were a few things that probably came together. I never plan a novel, I just find a first sentence and then try and find the second.

 

But the importance of healthcare workers during the pandemic was certainly an influencing factor, and then the birth of our first grandchild, Esme Willow, to whom the book was dedicated.

 

The doctor had featured in the previous novel, This Is Happiness, and now required his own stage. 

 

Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: The title refers first to Christmas, the time a child is born, and the story takes place over the weeks of Advent, ending at Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

 

But locally, in Faha in west Clare where the story is set, it came to refer to that time when a child was found at the end of the Christmas Fairday. 

 

Q: As you mentioned, this novel is set in Faha, where your novel This Is Happiness took place. Why did you decide to return to this location, and how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: I don’t think I had a choice to go somewhere else. Rather the way that Christine and I have lived nearly 40 years in west Clare, the writing took root here.

 

When writing This Is Happiness I didn’t want to finish the novel and leave Faha. And I was greatly encouraged when readers started writing to me to say they didn’t want to finish reading and so leave Faha.

 

So I began to conceive of a series of Faha novels that will cover the time between the coming of electricity and the arrival of the internet. 

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?

 

A: Joy. The timeless pleasures of a story well told. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am just starting the next Faha novel, set six years later. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: The film of my first novel, Four Letters of Love, starring Pierce Brosnan, Gabriel Byrne, and Helena Bonham Carter, will be in cinemas next spring. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Niall Williams.