Poignant ... This novel is steeped in Catholicism, myth, goodness, mercy and love. It is also — lest you worry that it might be sentimental or twee — harshly realistic ... Beautifully crafted sentences whipped with humor ... Williams portrays his characters fully and with humor ... An engrossing read, the dark and the rain and the shabby but hopeful holiday decorations blending with the peat smoke and the love, all coming fully alive on the page. And that is something of a miracle itself.
Dazzles as both Christmas tale and erudite novel ... The author’s affection for his characters buoys each chapter ... Williams packs his paragraphs with lush imagery and piercing psychological insight. Line by line, it may be the most beautifully written novel I’ve read this year.
Moving ... Heartwarming ... When I cried, it was because, with his careful and compassionate depictions of people, place and time, Williams reminds us of the humanity in all, of the vitality of a community that comes together, and of the power in revealing our vulnerabilities to others.
Bear hug of a book ... Beautiful ... Williams is a lyrical writer who takes his time. He specializes in resonant moments ... Moist eyes are all but assured.
A slow-burning, finely crafted novel about second chances, humanity and familial love, Time of the Child rewards close reading. While outwardly everything remains the same, interior lives are profoundly altered. Williams’s descriptive language is extraordinary – his use of understatement and irony artfully deployed, his characterisation sublime. I find it astonishing that, despite his global success, he has yet to win a big award.
It is no spoiler to reveal that the novel ends with a twinkling vision of generous acceptance by the open-hearted local community. But it would be redundant to indict this ending, and the novel itself, for its sentimental whimsy, since this is the furrow Williams has chosen to plough. Whether it’s your thing will be a question of personal taste, but from the practitioner’s perspective it is fascinating to see such hoary old hokum spun from the pen of a real virtuoso. Though he has little interest in conventional plot, Williams has a remarkable facility for inventive narrative digression.
Williams excels ... More than one aspect of being a child is significant in this book, and Williams’s delicacy in depicting the mysteries of interactions both human and divine is quietly satisfying.
Warm and life-affirming ... Sustained by these wise lines on nearly every page and by certain set-piece scenes that show the breadth of Williams’s skill
This reviewer has to wonder why an author as brilliant as Niall Williams, whose latest book is the resplendent, suspenseful Time of the Child, isn’t at the top of every reader’s mind. Few contemporary novelists create worlds and characters so amazingly alive and specific ... Anyone who cherishes great writing should want more and more from Williams.
