The Fall of Light - Softcover

Williams, Niall

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330487000 ISBN 13: 9780330487009

Publisher: Pan MacMillan, 2002

Synopsis

An epic tale of Irelands people in the nineteenth century.The story begins in the famine-stricken Ireland of the mid-nineteenth century. The Foley family have always been proud and fearless, shaped by their fight for survival. But now they have lost their home. And they have also lost Emer, wife of Francis and mother to the four boys, Tomas, Finbar, Finan, and the youngest, Teige, a solemn twelve-year old who possesses an extraordinary gift. With nothing now to hold them they set off across Ireland, in search of a new start in the untenanted lands of the west.Disaster strikes, however, and the brothers are scattered across the country and overseas. Their adventures teach them about the world outside as they travel through Europe, Africa and the New World; each of them must endure many trials and learn much before their wanderings can end.

About this title

About the Author:

Niall Williams was born in 1958 and lives in Kiltumper, Ireland, with his wife Christine and their two children. He is the author of three other novels, including Four Letters of Love (which was sold in over twenty countries and an international bestseller) as well as, most recently, Only Say the Word.

From Publishers Weekly:

The travails of the Foley family in the times before and during the Irish potato famine are the subject of Williams's overwrought, unashamedly romantic epic (after Four Letters of Love). Francis Foley inherited his rebel blood from a father who was hung for treason by the English, but his marauding spirit is tamed somewhat when he marries Emer O'Suilleabhain, the daughter of a village schoolteacher. A gardener on the great estate of a mostly absentee grandee, Francis eventually takes to breaking into the big house and looking at the sky through his lordship's telescope, to Emer's dismay; their quarrels escalate into violence and she leaves him. Francis, desperate to find her, packs up his four sons, steals the telescope, sets fire to the estate and runs off. So begins a series of disasters that sees the Foley boys Tomas, Teige and the twins, Finbar and Finan separated and reunited several times as their destinies carry them to Hungary, America and Africa. Tomas, the oldest, falls in love with a beautiful prostitute named Blath, for whom he kills a man. Teige, the youngest, becomes a locally famous horse tamer and runs off with Elizabeth, the daughter of the squire he works for, and Finbar winds up the leader of a gypsy band. Francis himself is nearly drowned, and is rescued by monks; he searches for his sons and is finally reunited with Emer, now a blind woman. Williams veers from lyricism to blarney in swooping, misty paragraphs sure to please his readership. Major ad/promo; 5-city author tour.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pan MacMillan
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0330487000
• ISBN 13: 9780330487009
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 381