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History of the Rain

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About this listen

We are our stories. We tell them to stay alive or keep alive those who only live now in the telling. In Faha, County Clare, everyone is a long story....

Bedbound in her attic room beneath the falling rain, Plain Ruth Swain is in search of her father. To find him Ruthie must first trace the jutting jaw lines, narrow faces, and gleamy skin of the Swains from the restless Reverend Swain, her great-grandfather, to her father, Virgil - via pole-vaulting, leaping salmon, poetry and the 3,958 books piled high beneath the two skylights in her room.

©2014 Niall Williams (P)2014 W F Howes Ltd Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Heartfelt

Critic reviews

"Extremely moving, poignantly capturing Ruth's doomed childhood relationship with her twin brother. By the final chapter I was weeping." ( Sunday Times)
"A rambling, soft-hearted Irish family saga stuffed with eccentricity, literature, anecdotes, mythology, humour and heartbreak." ( Kirkus)
All stars
Most relevant
Wonderful soothing voice and I became absorbed into the world and characters. Excellent descriptions of local people everyone can relate to.
Emotive and beautiful.

A book to keep going with, the imagery of individuals was beautiful

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Gripping story, bittersweet.
Enjoyed the narrators voice and pace.
I will most likely listen to it again as there is so much in it.

Brilliant

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Wonderful book and though well read I could not get past the actor’s incongruous accent. It is not possible to believe the voice of a young girl brought up in rural County Clare when the narrator has such a strong Dublin City accent. It felt like if you listened to a Thomas Hardy or Austen book narrated by an actor from Eastenders. Beautiful book well read but the accent unfortunately was for me not of the place or the person.

Niall Williams writes divinely

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A book about family, love, loss, grief, literature and Ireland. I can't recommend it too highly. Wonderful

Speaks to my soul

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What did you like most about History of the Rain?

The sheer scale of the achievement in conjuring the environment and characters from the books in the library surrounding Ruth.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Ruth, who was a complex and well-developed character, sensitive and indulgent, but hard as nails in many respects.

What does Jennifer McGrath bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

She seems to have a core understanding of Ruth's attitudes, and brings out the strength of her character very well. A lot of the lyrical prose is delivered in a matter-of-fact way, rather than with too much deference, which I think really helps the story along.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No; it was a joy to bask in the qualities of the prose over an extended period.

Any additional comments?

A really rewarding listen, but it's interesting that there isn't a great deal of drive to the present-day plot, which makes the whole experience somewhat diffuse and meandering. That, however, might be seen as a positive. Occasionally the narrator's differentiation between characters was a little absent, and I do wonder whether the potentially terminally ill Ruth was a bit energetic, but this was an epic task to take on, and may have dragged horribly if there'd been a more weary approach.

Huge achievement, perfect prose for audio

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