Latest news with #NiallWilliams
Irish Examiner
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Niall Williams wins €20k Irish Novel of the Year award
Author Niall Williams has been named as the winner of the 2025 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for his novel Time of the Child. Williams was announced the winner at the opening night of the Listowel Literary Festival, a celebration of literature which features events with acclaimed writers, panels, workshops, and performances across Listowel until June 1. Now in its 31st year, the award remains one of the most esteemed literary honours in the country, celebrating outstanding Irish fiction. The award, sponsored by Kerry Group, has a prize fund of €22,000, with €20,000 for the winner and €500 for each shortlisted author. This year's adjudicators, acclaimed authors Carol Drinkwater and Paul McVeigh, reviewed over 50 submitted novels before selecting the winner from a powerful shortlist that included Christine Dwyer Hickey, Joseph O'Connor, Colm Tóibín, and Donal Ryan. Niall Williams, winner of the 2025 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for his novel Time of the Child, pictured with the winner is Ned O'Sullivan Writers Week. Picture: Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus LTD. McVeigh said that judging the prize this year was no small task and complimented the quality of the entries, which he said 'a testament to an extraordinary time in Irish literature'. 'Any of the shortlisted books could have won but, in the end, Time of the Child by Niall Williams rose to the top,' he said. 'I don't remember the last time I read a book that made me stop, so frequently, unable to continue until I had savoured a sentence. He is an extraordinary writer and a worthy winner of the Irish Novel of the Year.' Drinkwater described Williams's writing as exciting and exquisite and touched on how he brings his characters to life on the page. 'Reading his sentences was like sitting in a magnificent cathedral and listening to a great soprano singing, notes reaching to the rafters and returning to me, to nestle in my heart. It is a novel full of compassion,' she said. "The characters are so vulnerable, they tear you apart. It has been several weeks since we chose Niall's novel as our winner. "Still, I sit at my desk and picture myself in that doctor's surgery. I hear the child crying; I can smell the newly washed nappies; I long for these people, that father and daughter, to be given the miracle they so crave. 'This is the third time I've judged this prize and each time I'm reminded of the richness of Irish fiction today. Ireland truly is a treasure chest of brilliant modern novelists.' Chief corporate affairs officer at Kerry Group Catherine Keogh praised the continued partnership with Listowel Writers' Week. 'Every year, the calibre of writing reminds us why Ireland continues to lead on the global literary stage,' she said. 'We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Niall Williams on this well-deserved recognition,' she said.
Irish Times
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Niall Williams's Time of the Child wins Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award
Niall Williams has won the 2025 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, worth €20,000, for Time of the Child at a ceremony on the opening night of the Listowel Literary Festival in Co Kerry. This year's adjudicators, authors Carol Drinkwater and Paul McVeigh, reviewed more than 50 submitted novels before selecting the winner from a powerful shortlist that included Christine Dwyer Hickey, Joseph O'Connor, Colm Tóibín and Donal Ryan. 'Judging the prize this year was no small task,' McVeigh said. 'The quality of the entries was superb, a testament to an extraordinary time in Irish literature. Any of the shortlisted books could have won but, in the end, Time of the Child by Niall Williams rose to the top. I don't remember the last time I read a book that made me stop, so frequently, unable to continue until I had savoured a sentence. He is an extraordinary writer and a worthy winner of the Irish Novel of the Year.' Drinkwater said: 'Niall's writing is so exciting. It is exquisite. Reading his sentences was like sitting in a magnificent cathedral and listening to a great soprano singing, notes reaching to the rafters and returning to me, to nestle in my heart. It is a novel full of compassion. The characters are so vulnerable, they tear you apart. It has been several weeks since we chose Niall's novel as our winner. Still, I sit at my desk and picture myself in that doctor's surgery. I hear the child crying; I can smell the newly washed nappies; I long for these people, that father and daughter, to be given the miracle they so crave.' READ MORE Reviewing it for The Irish Times, Sarah Gilmartin praised the lushness and lyricism of the language and called it 'a warm and life-affirming story about ordinary people going to extraordinary lengths. 'Set during the advent season of 1962 in the fictional village of Faha on the west coast of Ireland, the grimly familiar scenario of an abandoned baby becomes fresh again through the heroic acts of a local doctor and his eldest daughter, as depicted by a writer who has long been interested in the wonders of the everyday.' Time of the Child is the 11th novel of the Dublin-born writer, who turns 67 next month, and his third set in the fictional village of Faha, west Clare. He has long lived in Kiltumper, Co Clare, with his wife Christine Breen. His 1997 debut novel, Four Letters of Love, has been made into a film starring Pierce Brosnan, Gabriel Byrne and Helena Bonham Carter. It will be released in July. 'I am the great unknown novelist,' Williams told interviewer Roisin Ingle last October , laughing. 'Even after being longlisted for the Booker ,' his wife added, talking about Williams's first book set in Faha, History of the Rain, which was published in 2014. 'It took me a long time to have the confidence to write [about rural Clare] in fiction, after living it for years. Because Ireland has moved on and the intelligentsia in Ireland has really moved on. So, writing these stories, you were going to be viewed as sentimental, nostalgic ... or people would think it's not real.' Whether real or not, it has certainly paid off.
Sunday World
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sunday World
Trailer for new Pierce Brosnan film shot in Donegal is released
Entitled 'Four Letters Of Love', it is based on the international bestselling novel of the same name by Niall Williams The trailer for the new Pierce Brosnan film shot in Donegal has been released. Entitled 'Four Letters Of Love', it is based on the international bestselling novel of the same name by Niall Williams'. Two-time Academy Award nominee Brosnan stars alongside Gabriel Byrne and Helena Bonham Carter in the flick that is coming to cinemas on July 18. Shot on location in Donegal and Antrim, Four Letters Of Love is described as a 'life-affirming tale about faith and doubt, maybes and almosts, and the miracle of love' The synopsis outlines how 'Nicholas (O'Shea) and Isabel (Skelly) are made for each other, but as destiny pulls them together, so do family, passion, and faith drive them apart. We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review your details and accept them to load the content 'Nicholas' father, William (Brosnan), comes home one day to shatter his family's quiet, modest life. He tells them that after a moment of divine revelation, he has decided to dedicate his life to painting. 'He quits his job and sets off for the West Coast, leaving his shell-shocked wife and son to fend for themselves.' Meanwhile, Isabel and her family live a charmed existence on a remote island off the West Coast, their house full of music and poetry. When tragedy strikes and her brother suffers a terrible accident, the music stops, and Isabel's mother, played by Bonham Carter, and father (Byrne) decide in their grief to send Isabel to a convent school on the mainland. The young lovers embark on their own individual journeys of heartache and misplaced love, before fate contrives to pull the threads of their lives together. When they meet, it is a miracle.' The original novel was translated into more than 30 languages after it was published in 1997 and before he adapted it for the screen.
Irish Examiner
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Jack Anderson: Time to give the refs a break, and stand up for them when abuse is hurled
Irish novelists are a global phenomenon. Crime, literary, popular fiction; you name it, Irish authors are everywhere. Sport however doesn't feature much in modern Irish fiction. One exception is in the sublime Niall Williams novel This is Happiness. Williams recounts a Gaelic football match in Clare in the 1950s; a local derby, featuring violence not seen since the Vandals sacked Rome. Williams says of the referee that he was 'a martyr called Tuohy, who came by bicycle and hoped to depart that way.' This is exclusive subscriber content. Already a subscriber? Sign in Subscribe to access all of the Irish Examiner. Annual €120€60 Best value Monthly €10€4 / month Unlimited access. Subscriber content. Daily ePaper. Additional benefits.
