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History of the Rain

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History of the Rain

By: Niall Williams
Narrated by: Jennifer McGrath
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About this listen

We are our stories. We tell them to stay alive or keep alive those who only live now in the telling. In Faha, County Clare, everyone is a long story....

Bedbound in her attic room beneath the falling rain, Plain Ruth Swain is in search of her father. To find him Ruthie must first trace the jutting jaw lines, narrow faces, and gleamy skin of the Swains from the restless Reverend Swain, her great-grandfather, to her father, Virgil - via pole-vaulting, leaping salmon, poetry and the 3,958 books piled high beneath the two skylights in her room.

©2014 Niall Williams (P)2014 W F Howes Ltd Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

Critic Reviews

"Extremely moving, poignantly capturing Ruth's doomed childhood relationship with her twin brother. By the final chapter I was weeping." ( Sunday Times)
"A rambling, soft-hearted Irish family saga stuffed with eccentricity, literature, anecdotes, mythology, humour and heartbreak." ( Kirkus)
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I enjoyed the exquisite story telling especially descriptions of a family that could not live up to their impossible expectations.

I was sad to hear about Virgil and his beautiful poems. I enjoyed Ruth’s account of why he wrote as he did.

The Impossible Standard

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I found the way that the books that were referenced in the story quite jarring in the audio book. I didn't need to know all the details about each publisher every time a quote was made about another authors work. It interrupted the flow (pun intended) of the story and became quite grating.

The story was great and I love the metaphor.

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Gentle, strong, humorous, insightful, this was a pleasure to hear/ read! The honesty within the character and the clever plot made common sense and opened the chance for insight into love, life, faith, family and of course.... Death.

Washed with a beautiful story

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A beautifully poetic work. Wonderful literary and Irish references. Funny and sad and beautiful. LOVED it.

Magical.

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I adore this book and have listened to it several times, the narrator is perfect!

Absolute Favourite

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Very rarely you realise you’re listening to a book you should actually have read instead. Although the narration was very good overall, the reading out of each book number, along with its publisher and city was incredibly tedious and annoying. It also broke the flow of the narrative, which I otherwise loved. Not sure we needed to trace the family all the way back and I found the seaweed stuff unnecessary and distracting - and almost made me give up on the book altogether. But Niall Williams writes extraordinary characters, so real you can see, hear and SMELL them! It was also a joy to be back in Faha, after having read This is Beautiful (his later book) first - and LOVED it unreservedly.

Huge sweep of a story

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This is a beautiful book and reflects the human condition and the Irish character profoundly. Highly recommend

A rich experience

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The narration was amateurish and unbearably bad. An insult to a distinguished writer. I could barely listen to half an hour so no idea if it's actually a good book

disappointing

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