The Fall of Light - Hardcover

Williams, Niall

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446528404 ISBN 13: 9780446528405

Publisher: Warner Books, 2002

Synopsis

Beginning in Ireland in the early years of the 19th century, the four Foley brothers flee across the country with their father and the large telescope he has stolen. Soon forced apart by the violence of the Irish wilderness, the potato famine, and the promise of America, the brothers find themselves scattered across the world. Their separate adventures unfold in passionate and vivid scenes with gypsies, horse races, sea voyages, and beautiful women. An epic narrative on the meaning of love and home and family, THE FALL OF LIGHT is a dazzling novel by one of the most promising novelists writing today.

About this title

About the Author

Niall Williams lives in County Clare, Ireland.

Reviews

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.

The author of the acclaimed debut novel Four Letters of Love (1997), Williams once again features a father undone by grandiose dreams. Sick to death of the menial chores required and the disrespect he suffers as a gardener on a vast estate in Ireland, working for an absentee landlord, Francis Foley steals a splendid telescope from the owner's large library. His wife, tired of constantly being on the move and of her husband's refusal to put his family before his pride, has taken off. In order to escape the law, Francis and his four sons sneak away in the middle of the night. In attempting to cross a turbulent river, the sons become separated from their father and eventually from each other. Now the father wants nothing more than what he once had: the closeness and comfort of his family. Williams expertly covers a lot of territory--the stark tragedy of the potato famine, the ability to speak to horses, the pull of the stars--giving his resonant, fable-like story the grand sweep of an epic. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

As a novelist, Williams started out big with Four Letters of Love, soon to appear on the silver screen in an adaptation directed by Stanley Tucci. His next, As It Is in Heaven, was shortlisted for the Irish Times Literary Award. Here, four brothers help their father escape 19th-century Ireland with a stolen telescope in tow, then go their separate ways for innumerable adventures.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Warner Books
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0446528404
• ISBN 13: 9780446528405
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320