The Good People in Around the World in 80 Books

Jun 27, 2021 Colleen Chi-Girl rated it really liked it

Shelves: ireland-irish, audiobooks, women-centered, 2021, crime-mysteries, historical-fiction

***-1/2 stars ⭐️ rounded up. I read this compelling, dark, historical-fiction novel on audio and the narrator gave it the eerie, ghostly, required atmosphere of 1820's Ireland. County Kerry to be exact.

It's a really well-written novel, by the uber-talented Hannah Kent, but it was just too dark and superstitious for me. Nóra's daughter recently died and left behind her young son, Micheál who once babbled, could move his legs, and was a lively child.

Superstitions in a small, poor, village, long ***-1/2 stars ⭐️ rounded up. I read this compelling, dark, historical-fiction novel on audio and the narrator gave it the eerie, ghostly, required atmosphere of 1820's Ireland. County Kerry to be exact.

It's a really well-written novel, by the uber-talented Hannah Kent, but it was just too dark and superstitious for me. Nóra's daughter recently died and left behind her young son, Micheál who once babbled, could move his legs, and was a lively child.

Superstitions in a small, poor, village, long ago, were prominent and Nóra believes the child has a piseog or pishog (ghost or fairy) who has taken over its body. Micheál no longer moves his bottom half, doesn't speak or babble, etc.

(Cut to my brain, 200 years later: try warm baths, physical therapy, massage...hold and cuddle this darling, motherless boy. But no running warm water, heat, etc etc. I digress.)

Back to the 1820's...Nóra tries many ways to rid this boy of the fairy. Oyyyy! This is definitely a thriller of a different sort. You don't know what's coming. You learn what motivates the poor grandmother.

Although it was often about the use of herbs as medicinal by some of the villagers during this time period, they were a very condemning sort. And for me, even though it's true of the era, the amount of time spent on the fairies and ghosts turned me off. I have a GGGGM who was born in Co Kerry in 1825 and immigrated to the US/Ohio. I’ve often envisioned life as one of my relatives but never was it like life in this village. Lol.

If this style of atmospheric, old-fashioned, small Irish village life of superstitions, faeries and ghosts, attitudes, and aptitudes appeals to you, you will probably love it.

Here is a brief publisher recap:

County Kerry, Ireland, 1825. The fires on the hills smouldered orange as the women left, pockets charged with ashes to guard them from the night. Watching them fade into the grey fall of snow, Nance thought she could hear Maggie's voice. A whisper in the dark. (BEAUTIFUL WRITING, right??)

Nóra Leahy has lost her daughter and her husband in the same year, and is now burdened with the care of her four-year-old grandson, Micheál. The boy cannot walk, or speak, and Nora, mistrustful of the tongues of gossips, has kept the child hidden from those who might see in his deformity evidence of otherworldly interference.... ...more

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Apr 18, 2019 Lindsey Z rated it really liked it

*3.75 stars*

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Oct 24, 2017 Andy Plonka rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: src

Set in Rural Ireland the early 1800's, Three women are brought together by life changing events. Nora has suffered the loss of her daughter and is given the responsibility of rearing her daughter's young son. Shouldering this task is mitigated by the help of her husband until his untimely death. The child whom Nora had known as an infant seems to have suffered both physical and mental setbacks which prompts Nora to seek help caring for the boy. Mary a young woman whose own family has financial p ...more

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