"In December 1962, 12-year-old Jude Quinlan and his father take their cows to the Christmas fair in Faha, a small town where 'all commentators agreed: nothing happened here.' The town's reputation begins to change after Jude, waiting for his father to emerge from the pub, finds a baby at the back wall of the church. Jude brings the baby to the local physician, Jack Troy, whose grown daughter Ronnie names her Noelle. The Troys hide the baby to prevent her from being taken away and placed in an orphanage. Jack, regretting that he disapproved of Ronnie's former suitor, Noel Crowe, who now lives in America, concocts a far-fetched plan to lure Noel back to Ireland, so he and Ronnie can get married and take the child to the U.S. to raise"--
There is something of Trollope's Barsetshire here, in the sense of an entire place rendered in fine detail ... Williams's phrasing is immaculate and even the smallest characters are drawn with attention and detail. But Dr Troy is the heart of this slow, rich novel. The scene in which he dances with the baby in a quiet kitchen is one of the most affecting I've read The Times
I am utterly obsessed with Niall Williams.