Angela M is taking a break.'s Reviews > History of the Rain

I was in this small town Faha, in Ireland, in this attic room filled with so many books, in the mind and heart of Ruth Swain, an unforgettable character who made me laugh, cry, think and want to read all of those classics I never read. Nineteen and bedridden in her attic room, with an illness that is never fully divulged, Ruth Swain reads and writes and tells us stories, her story and the story of her family. In an utterly stunning way, we the readers are addressed by Ruth and we become part of her story. The novel is not told in a consecutive way. It moves around in time from the present to Ruth’s childhood, to her father’s and grandfather’s earlier lives, how her mother and father met, and the time she shared with her twin brother Aeney. It’s a family saga, but so much more. It’s about a reading life, a writing life, about creativity, about wanting to know one’s history and it is just beautifully told . Literary references are abundant as Ruth sets her mind on reading the nearly four thousand books left to her by her father. The water images, the call of the River Shannon, the salmon, the sound of it flowing, the rain - the power of story telling bringing beauty, solace, loss and yet hope. Williams has convinced me that I should read every one of his books.