This Is Happiness

Shortlisted for Best Novel in the Irish Book Awards

Longlisted for the 2020 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

From the acclaimed author of Man Booker-longlisted History of the Rain

Lyrical, tender and sumptuously perceptive Sunday Times

A love letter to the sleepy, unhurried and delightfully odd Ireland that is all but gone Irish Independent

After dropping out of the seminary, seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe finds himself back in Faha, a small Irish parish where nothing ever changes, including the ever-falling rain.

But one morning the rain stops and news reaches the parish - the electricity is finally arriving. With it comes a lodger to Noel s home, Christy McMahon. Though he can t explain it, Noel knows right then- something has changed.

As Noel navigates his coming-of-age by Christy s side, falling in and out of love, Christy s buried past gradually comes to light, casting a glow on a small world and making it new.