Four Letters of Love: A Novel - Softcover

Williams, Niall

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1632863189 ISBN 13: 9781632863188

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2015

Synopsis

Nicholas Coughlan is twelve years old when his father, an Irish civil servant, announces that God has commanded him to become a painter. He abandons the family and a wife who is driven to despair. Years later, Nicholas's own civil-service career is disrupted by tragic news: his father has burned down the house, with all his paintings and himself in it.

Isabel Gore is the daughter of a poet. She's a passionate girl, but her brother is the real prodigy, a musician. And yet this family, too, is struck by tragedy: a seizure leaves the boy mute and unable to play. Years later, Isabel will continue to somehow blame herself, casting off her own chances for happiness.

And then, the day after Isabel's wedding to man she doesn't love, Nicholas arrives on her western isle, seeking his father's last surviving painting. Suddenly the winds of fortune begin to shift, sweeping both these souls up with them. Nicholas and Isabel, it seems, were always meant to meet. But it will take a series of chance events--and perhaps, a proper miracle--to convince both to follow their hearts to where they're meant to be.

About this title

About the Author:

Niall Williams's work includes stage plays, screenplays, nonfiction (co-written with his wife, Christine Breen), and eight novels. He has twice been longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and his latest novel, History of the Rain, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Four Letters of Love, his first novel, was an international bestseller upon publication, translated into over twenty languages, and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Williams lives in the west of Ireland.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A remarkable first novel from Williams--whose four previous books, written with his wife, have chronicled contemporary Irish life (The Luck of the Irish, 1995, etc.)--offers a powerful portrait of tragedy and of the redemption offered by love. Nicholas was a normal Dublin 12-year-old when his civil- servant father came home to announce he'd forsaken his career to become a painter. The full implications of that decision became clear shortly thereafter: Abandoning wife and son, the artist went off to the Irish countryside for the summer. After two summers of this and no income, Nicholas's mother committed suicide. Father and son struggled on, making one memorable painting trip to the western coast, after which cows destroyed many of the paintings, leaving the artist in doubt of his vocation. Years pass. Nicholas's own civil service career is cut short when his father burns his paintings, their house, and himself. Only one painting remains, a work that had been purchased and given as an award to a poet living on one of the western isles, and Nicholas goes to see whether he can buy it back. The poet's family is also familiar with despair: The only son, a musical prodigy, suffered a seizure one day while playing for his dancing sister, Isabel, and for years has been unable to play or speak. Isabel, blaming herself for his affliction, grew wild in her mainland convent school and threw away a good chance at a university education to marry a coarse, unprosperous tweed merchant whom she doesn't love. Nicholas arrives on the scene the day after Isabel's wedding, and his presence magically, inexplicably, begins to cause a shift in the prevailing winds of fortune. While a wealth of impressions linger from this debut, two words come most often to mind in describing it: Spellbinding. Brilliant. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1632863189
• ISBN 13: 9781632863188
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368