This Is Happiness

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BEST NOVEL IN THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 WALTER SCOTT PRIZE By the author of Four Letters of Love , the international bestseller now a major film starring Helena Bonham Carter and Pierce Brosnan ‘I love this book so passionately' Ann Patchett ‘Lyrical, tender and sumptuously perceptive’ Sunday Times After dropping out of the seminary, seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe finds himself back in Faha, a small Irish parish where nothing ever changes, including the ever-falling rain. But one morning the rain stops and news reaches the parish – electricity is finally arriving. With it comes a lodger to Noel’s home, Christy McMahon. Though he can’t explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed. As Noel navigates his coming-of-age, Christy’s buried past gradually comes to light, casting a glow on a small world and making it new. ‘If you’re craving a novel of delicate wit laced with rare insight, this, truly, is happiness’ Washington Post ‘Written with a turn of phrase that makes the reader want to underline something on every page’ Financial Times ‘What makes this so compelling and enjoyable is Williams’s transparent love of his characters and delight in his setting’ Observer

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BEST NOVEL IN THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 WALTER SCOTT PRIZE By the author of Four Letters of Love , the international bestseller now a major film starring Helena Bonham Carter and Pierce Brosnan ‘I love this book so passionately' Ann Patchett ‘Lyrical, tender and sumptuously perceptive’ Sunday Times After dropping out of the seminary, seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe finds himself back in Faha, a small Irish parish where nothing ever changes, including the ever-falling rain. But one morning the rain stops and news reaches the parish – electricity is finally arriving. With it comes a lodger to Noel’s home, Christy McMahon. Though he can’t explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed. As Noel navigates his coming-of-age, Christy’s buried past gradually comes to light, casting a glow on a small world and making it new. ‘If you’re craving a novel of delicate wit laced with rare insight, this, truly, is happiness’ Washington Post ‘Written with a turn of phrase that makes the reader want to underline something on every page’ Financial Times ‘What makes this so compelling and enjoyable is Williams’s transparent love of his characters and delight in his setting’ Observer

The November 2025 Late Show Book Club Pick! "I am such a fan of Niall Williams." -Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake A profound and enchanting novel set in the rural Irish village of Faha, from bestselling Time of the Child author Niall Williams, about the loves of our lives and the joys of reminiscing. The rain is stopping. Nobody in the small, forgotten village of Faha remembers when it started; rain on the western seaboard was a condition of living. Now--just as Father Coffey proclaims the coming of electricity--it is stopping. Seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe is standing outside his grandparents' house shortly after the rain has stopped when he encounters Christy for the first time. Though he can't explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed. This is the story of all that was to follow: Christy's long-lost love and why he had come to Faha, Noel's own experiences falling in and out of love, and the endlessly postponed arrival of electricity--a development that, once complete, would leave behind a world that had not changed for centuries. Luminous and otherworldly, and yet anchored with deep-running roots into the earthy and the everyday, This Is Happiness is about stories as the very stuff of life: the ways they make the texture and matter of our world, and the ways they write and rewrite us. Niall's other novels set in Faha include History of the Rain and Time of the Child , which are both available now!

The November 2025 Late Show Book Club Pick! "I am such a fan of Niall Williams." -Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake A profound and enchanting novel set in the rural Irish village of Faha, from bestselling Time of the Child author Niall Williams, about the loves of our lives and the joys of reminiscing. The rain is stopping. Nobody in the small, forgotten village of Faha remembers when it started; rain on the western seaboard was a condition of living. Now--just as Father Coffey proclaims the coming of electricity--it is stopping. Seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe is standing outside his grandparents' house shortly after the rain has stopped when he encounters Christy for the first time. Though he can't explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed. This is the story of all that was to follow: Christy's long-lost love and why he had come to Faha, Noel's own experiences falling in and out of love, and the endlessly postponed arrival of electricity--a development that, once complete, would leave behind a world that had not changed for centuries. Luminous and otherworldly, and yet anchored with deep-running roots into the earthy and the everyday, This Is Happiness is about stories as the very stuff of life: the ways they make the texture and matter of our world, and the ways they write and rewrite us. Niall's other novels set in Faha include History of the Rain and Time of the Child , which are both available now!