The Good People

Author(s): Hannah Kent

Fiction

Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize. Based on true events and set in a lost world bound by its own laws, The Good People is Hannah Kent's startling novel about absolute belief and devoted love. Terrifying, thrilling and moving in equal measure, this long-awaited follow-up to Burial Rites shows an author at the height of her powers. County Kerry, Ireland, 1825. Nóra, bereft after the sudden death of her beloved husband, finds herself alone and caring for her young grandson Micheál. Micheál cannot speak and cannot walk and Nóra is desperate to know what is wrong with him. What happened to the healthy, happy grandson she met when her daughter was still alive? Mary arrives in the valley to help Nóra just as the whispers are spreading: the stories of unexplained misfortunes, of illnesses, and the rumours that Micheál is a changeling child who is bringing bad luck to the valley. Nance's knowledge keeps her apart. To the new priest, she is a threat, but to the valley people she is a wanderer, a healer. Nance knows how to use the plants and berries of the woodland; she understands the magic in the old ways. And she might be able to help Micheál. As these three women are drawn together in the hope of restoring Micheál, their world of folklore and belief, of ritual and stories, tightens around them. It will lead them down a dangerous path, and force them to question everything they have ever known.

The award-winning author of Burial Rites has transferred her imaginative power and luminous writing to Ireland in the 1820s, delivering a story located in the liminal world between myth and reality, superstition and truth.   Hard times have given Michael, a crippled and mute boy, into the care of his recently widowed grandmother amidst villagers ever susceptible to suspicion and fear.   His difference and inability to communicate draw both forth as he is believed to be a changeling, to have been touched by fairies.  The ‘good people’ as they are known, are thought to be capricious, capable of both beneficence and harm in equal measure. The story revolves around three women; Nora, Michael’s grandmother; Nance, an old woman and healer whose help is sought to banish the fairy child and return Nora’s grandson; and Mary, a girl from the village who comes to care for him.


 


Like its Icelandic predecessor, this atmospheric novel is based on a true story with the author’s acute characterisations and descriptive power capturing the best and the worst of the human condition.   These elements endure, as will Ms Kent’s writing, amidst a narrative of irresistible force. -> Sarah

$32.99 AUD

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Product Information

Long-listed for Australian Independent Booksellers Indie Awards: Fiction 2017.

General Fields

  • : 9781743534908
  • : Pan Macmillan Australia Pty, Limited
  • : Picador
  • : July 2016
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Hannah Kent
  • : 400