Niall Williams - Irish Writer from Kiltumper, Ireland

Niall Williams

Thank you for visiting our site. Here you'll find a complete listing of Niall's works, including novels, non-fiction (with wife Christine Breen) and plays. We hope you enjoy your visit.

Keep up to date with all that’s happening in Kiltumper on View from Kiltumper Blog

Forthcoming paperback publication of John scheduled by Bloomsbury in the Spring '09...

Also new in the spring will be the paperback publication of Boy and Man, the sequel to Niall's young adult novel, Boy in the World.

Niall continues this year as the Writer in Residence for County Sligo.... And the successful Kiltumper Writing Workshops continue with two workshops scheduled for summer '09....

John - Paperback cover John

In April, Bloomsbury UK, will publish John in paperback—a stunning, lyrical re-imagining of John the Apostle in the final years of his life.

John is an ambitious and provocative novel about the last surviving apostle and a powerful look at faith and how it lives and dies in the hearts of men.

Read Niall's notes on John on the View from Kiltumper Blog page.

John UK version "The writing is unfailingly resourceful and strong, able to range from the physical realities of poverty and deprivation to the exaltation of religious faith and the poignancies of memory. And the novel as a whole constitutes an eloquent and moving statement of the power of love and the belief that it will triumph in the end."
- Barry Unsworth in The Guardian

Review from Kirkus Review…

“Irish novelist Williams takes spiritual issues seriously—and continues to write compellingly about them.”

"Themes of love, faith, redemption and survival inform his smoothly lyrical, powerfully dramatic prose in John. Williams is a writer who understands the haunting power of the simple sentence, the importance of compelling interior monologues. He has the knack of conveying a sense of immediacy. His flair for narrative overcomes the challenge of a story that starts out, by necessity, chained to a Greek rock, like Prometheus... This is a cracking good Bible-based novel for those of us who are theologically challenged. If Hollywood producer Cecil B. DeMille (The Ten Commandments) were alive today, he'd be angling for the film rights."
- Pat Donnelly, The Montreal Gazette

"Gripping and believable... In an age where reason and science have shown themselves inadequate to fulfil the human dream of perfection, it is important that serious writers such as Williams face the perennial questions of faith and love."
- The Irish Times

"Poweful and moving... an absorbing and intelligent novel."
- Times Literary Supplement

Boy and Man, by Niall Williams Boy and Man

Following the success of Boy in the World, Boy and Man will be published by HarperCollins UK in March of 2009. It continues the journey of the boy Jay as he volunteers in Ethiopia and leaves the world of adolescence behind. In keeping with the magic of Boy in the World and following in the tradition of Dickensian storytelling, Boy and Man, comes together like a masterful jigsaw.

Boy in the World, by Niall Williams Boy in the World

“A Dickens for the 21st Century…. With poetic prose that could have been written by angels, combined with a pace that keeps the reader turning the pages, Niall Williams’s gorgeous fifth novel… pulls together Dickensian plot twists, the philosophy of St Augustine and the collective trauma of 9/11 to create a convincing pilgrimage….”
- The Irish Times

“In the past, Williams’s writing has often displayed an old fashioned quality, wistfully creating characters and settings that owe more to the nostalgic than the contemporary. Boy in the World sets out in a similar vein but snaps firmly against this by introducing acts of terrorism and considering the consequences of violence. At time thoughtful and moving, ultimately it is the empathy the reader feels for the young boy which allows this fine novel to resonate so well.”
- John Boyne, author of the bestselling The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

“A likeable novel, which succeeds both as a sympathetic study of relationships and personal loss, and as a colourful… gripping story…”
- Times Literary Supplement

Workshops & Engagements

After successful writers’s workshops in Limerick, Kerry and Sligo, Niall is once again conducting a workshop in May, 2009 at The Listowel’s Writers’ Week. Three-day workshops in Kiltumper this coming summer are currently being organized.

Listen to Niall in interview with Vincent Woods about his novel John.