ABOUT
THE BOOK

Nicholas Coughlan is twelve when God speaks to his father, William, telling him to give up his job and devote his life to painting. Nicholas and his mother are left alone and adrift, as his father disappears sporadically to the other side of Ireland, where he daubs his canvases in the Atlantic light, obeying what he believes to be God’s will. On an island off the west coast, Isabel Gore lives with her parents and her brother Sean, whose brilliant musical gift has been silenced by a seizure which has left him unable to walk or speak. Isabel is sent away to convent school in Galway, but weighed down by guilt at the fate of her brother, she escapes at the first opportunity. Nicholas and Isabel were made for each other, but how will they ever know? Niall Williams is the author of several plays and, with his wife Christine Breen, has written four non-fiction books about life in Kiltumper, in the west of Ireland , where he now lives.