The Good People by Hannah Kent

 

The setting is the rural Irish countryside in the early nineteenth century.  Life is hard for the farmers and tradesmen of the valley and everyone is dependent on the crops and the milk and eggs and meat of their livestock.  The inhabitants are superstitious and whenever anything goes wrong, they look to the folklore they were raised with to find who is responsible.  A new priest has come to the valley and he insists they must put aside their old beliefs as the Church is against reminders of paganism.

Nora is having an especially hard time.  Her husband recently dropped dead unexpectedly.  She is left to raise her grandson by herself and it is more than she can handle.  Micheal was brought to her after the death of her daughter by her son-in-law.  Although he was a normal child at two, toddling and talking, now at four he cannot walk or talk or even relate to anyone.  Nora hires Mary at a hiring fair as her maid and to help her with Micheal.  Over the months that follow, as the other inhabitants of the valley come to hear about Micheal, they call him a changeling and start to blame him for the poor crops and weakened milk and egg production they are experiencing.  Nora starts to believe that her real grandson has been taken by the fairies or Good People as they are called and that this changeling has been left in his place.

Nance is the herbalist who treats the people of the valley.   The priest is determined to drive her out and preaches against her and using her from the pulpit.  Nance is scared and ups her efforts to help those around her so she won't be driven away.  She tells Nora that she can restore her real grandson to her.  When the treatments go awry, the three women are arrested and charged with murder.

Hannah Kent is an Australian author who is interested in history and what went on in those places which were not yet part of the modern world.  The reader will be transported into this rural countryside and the difficult lives of its people .  Everyone knows everyone and secrets are not allowed.  It is a claustrophobic environment and one that lives by its own rules and laws.  The book is based on a true case and Kent has done a superb job of taking the reader to this place and time.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.