I read this beautiful novel when it first came out in 2015 (a gift from my sister) and somehow never kept any notes about it. I remember inhaling it in two or three evenings and putting it on my shelf as a definite keeper book. I also recall it was beautiful, romantic, and full of mystical symbolism – ahh the Irish.
Then, the other night I watched the fairly recent film adaptation starring Pierce Brosnan, Helen Bonham Carter, and Gabriel Byrne (great cast right?)
The film is much like the book I remember, beautifully sad and poetic. Set on the west coast of Ireland and in Dublin, Mr. Williams interweaves the stories of Isabel Gore and Nicholas Coughlan. Isabel lives on an island off Galway, the daughter of a poet/teacher and the most beautiful girl on the island, but she is full of guilt for her musical brother’s traumatic brain injury.
Meanwhile, a bored civil servant in Dublin, hears the commandment of God and leaves his depressed wife and young son, Nicholas to tramp about the west coast to paint in the dismal Irish weather.
Nicholas and Isabel seem unlikely to meet. But as God, ghosts, and a series of seemingly chance encounters conspire to bring the couple together, other — often more human — forces attempt to keep them apart.
Mr. Williams writes with soulful insight about what we do to ourselves in the name (or fear of) love. And, in the end, there is nothing random in life. Ahh the Irish.
I do recommend reading the book first – a short, but beautiful read. However, I so understand if you want to watch the film — which is a very fine adaptation – with beautiful scenery and some fine performances.