The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge  is for bloggers who wish to participate by publishing a blog post every day in April except for Sundays. Each blog post will focus on a letter of the alphabet. For example April 1 will be A, April 2 will be B and on it goes. By the end of April, a blog post for every letter of the alphabet will have been posted.

Summary

In the year 1825, in a remote valley lying between the mountains of south west Ireland, near the Flesk river of Killarney, three women are brought together by strange and troubling events.

Norah Leahy has lost her daughter and her husband in the same year, and is now burdened with the care of her four year old grandson, Micheal. The boy cannot walk, or speak, and Nora, mistrustful of the tongues of gossips, has kept the child hidden from those who might see in his deformity, evidence of otherworldly interference – from the back cover

My Thoughts

I don’t usually use the wording from the blurb for the summary. But felt in this case that I had no choice. I loved this book so much that I was concerned that I would give away too much of the storyline if I used my own words to summarise this amazing story.

I heard Hannah Kent discussing this book on a Podcast on ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) She spent time living in Ireland while she researched and wrote The Good People. Her indepth research is obvious as she bases her story on Irish folklore that has been around for centuries. It is difficult to imagine, in these modern, sophisticated times, that people actually believed these ales. But, not only did they believe them, they actually lived their lives around them. Some of their beliefs explored in this novel, made me laugh and others I found horrifying.

I would rate this book as one of my favourite books of all time. I love it so much that I have read it twice and listened to it twice as an audio book.  I’d recommend the audio book as a way to absorb this story. The Irish lilt of the narrator brought this story to life for me.

The characters were very well developed and both lovable and very easy to dislike. Sometimes, the one character would be easy to like and at the same time , very easy to dislike.

There are two pages at the back of the book, written by the author about her research and Irish folk lore which are a wonderful addition to the book.

I’m waiting very impatiently to see what is next from this young and very talented author.

Recommendation

“The Good People, takes us straight to a place utterly unexpected and believable, where amidst the earnest mayhem people impose on each other, there is no patronising quaintness, but a compelling sense of the inevitablity of solemn horrors” -Tom Keneally

Awards

Winner of the Booker Prize and Miles Franklin Literary Award.

About the Author

Hannah Kent is the co-founder of Australian Literary Journal, Kill Your Darlings. In 2011, she won the inaugural Writing Australia Unpublished Manuscript Award for her debut novel, Burial Rites. Since it’s publication in 2013, Burial Rites has been translated into nearly thirty languages, and has received numerous awards and nominations.

My rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Published in 2016, in Picador by Pan McMillan Australia Pty Ltd. Paperback, 3 pages.

Have you read this book. If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts. I promise to always reply to comments made in the section below.

Images: Goodreads