Time Of The Child by Niall Williams

 

Williams takes the reader back to Faha the scene of some of his other novels.  Faha is a small rural town in Ireland, the kind of small town where there is one road in and out and where everyone knows everyone's business.  It's almost Christmas and there is drama as always.

Dr. Troy is the town doctor as his father was before him.  He was married with three daughters in his younger days but two of his daughters are grown and gone to marriages and his wife passed away.  That leaves Dr Troy living in the house he had grown up in with his eldest daughter, Ronnie, who organizes his life and his practice. 

The time of the Christmas market has come and the farmers bring in their livestock to sell.  Travelers set up an open air market and the town turns out to look for last minute Christmas gifts.  One family isn't there as the wife is on her deathbed with Dr. Troy making daily housecalls.  He believes that their grandson had been courting Ronnie but he discouraged it and the young man went to the United States instead.  The town's priest is showing signs of aging as well, with his younger helper insisting the priest is in dementia and needs to be sent to a home.  

But there is bigger news  Late that night, while waiting for his father to leave the pub, a twelve year old boy finds a baby behind the church.  Whose could it be?  Everyone would know if a young lady of the town had gotten pregnant and all are accounted for.  The boy asks the help of the town's twins, two men in their fifties who are so alike that they even share a name, Tim-Tom.  The twins give him a ride on their tractor to Dr. Troy's house.

Dr. Troy takes the child in and examines the baby girl.  As no one knows who she belongs to and no one wants to turn her over to the authorities, he swears all to silence and he and Ronnie take over.  Soon Ronnie has fallen in love with the baby and named her.  How can Dr. Troy deny this child to Ronnie when she has devoted her life to him?  

What makes the Irish such great storytellers?  I've found so many Irish authors that I love and Niall Williams is another on my list.  I grew up in a small Southern mill town and although the environment was different, it is recognizable in the characters everyone knows in town and the respect given to doctors and men of the cloth.  Everyone knows everything about everyone else and a secret is a thing hard to keep.  In times of trouble, everyone rallies around.  Williams also immigrated to the United States after his university time but returned with his wife to Ireland and lives in the same cottage his grandfather left behind when he immigrated.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.