The Fall of Light

December 17, 2001
The travails of the Foley family in the times before and during the Irish potato famine are the subject of Williams's overwrought, unashamedly romantic epic (after Four Letters of Love). Francis Foley inherited his rebel blood from a father who was hung for treason by the English, but his marauding spirit is tamed somewhat when he marries Emer O'Suilleabhain, the daughter of a village schoolteacher. A gardener on the great estate of a mostly absentee grandee, Francis eventually takes to breaking into the big house and looking at the sky through his lordship's telescope, to Emer's dismay; their quarrels escalate into violence and she leaves him. Francis, desperate to find her, packs up his four sons, steals the telescope, sets fire to the estate and runs off. So begins a series of disasters that sees the Foley boys—Tomas, Teige and the twins, Finbar and Finan—separated and reunited several times as their destinies carry them to Hungary, America and Africa. Tomas, the oldest, falls in love with a beautiful prostitute named Blath, for whom he kills a man. Teige, the youngest, becomes a locally famous horse tamer and runs off with Elizabeth, the daughter of the squire he works for, and Finbar winds up the leader of a gypsy band. Francis himself is nearly drowned, and is rescued by monks; he searches for his sons and is finally reunited with Emer, now a blind woman. Williams veers from lyricism to blarney in swooping, misty paragraphs sure to please his readership. Major ad/promo; 5-city author tour.

November 15, 2001
As a novelist, Williams started out big with Four Letters of Love, soon to appear on the silver screen in an adaptation directed by Stanley Tucci. His next, As It Is in Heaven, was shortlisted for the Irish Times Literary Award. Here, four brothers help their father escape 19th-century Ireland with a stolen telescope in tow, then go their separate ways for innumerable adventures.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2002
The author of the acclaimed debut novel " Four Letters of Love" (1997), Williams once again features a father undone by grandiose dreams. Sick to death of the menial chores required and the disrespect he suffers as a gardener on a vast estate in Ireland, working for an absentee landlord, Francis Foley steals a splendid telescope from the owner's large library. His wife, tired of constantly being on the move and of her husband's refusal to put his family before his pride, has taken off. In order to escape the law, Francis and his four sons sneak away in the middle of the night. In attempting to cross a turbulent river, the sons become separated from their father and eventually from each other. Now the father wants nothing more than what he once had: the closeness and comfort of his family. Williams expertly covers a lot of territory--the stark tragedy of the potato famine, the ability to speak to horses, the pull of the stars--giving his resonant, fable-like story the grand sweep of an epic.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)