This Is Happiness

Shortlisted for Best Novel in the Irish Book Awards Longlisted for the 2020 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction From the acclaimed author of Man Booker-longlisted History of the Rain Lyrical, tender and sumptuously perceptive Sunday Times A love letter to the sleepy, unhurried and delightfully odd Ireland that is all but gone Irish Independent 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 the electricity is finally arriving. With it comes a lodger to Noels home, Christy McMahon. Though he cant explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed. As Noel navigates his coming-of-age by Christys side, falling in and out of love, Christys buried past gradually comes to light, casting a glow on a small world and making it new.