Fiction

Four Letters of Love
by Niall Williams
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Nicholas Coughlan is twelve when God speaks to his father, William, telling him to give up his job and devote his life to painting. Nicholas and his mother are left alone and adrift, as his father sporadically disappears to the other side of Ireland, where he daubs his canvases in the Atlantic light, obeying what he ardently believes to be God's command.

Across the country, on an island off the west coast, lives Isabel Gore with her parents and her brother, Sean, whose spellbinding musical gift has been silenced by a seizure which has left him unable to walk or speak. Isabel is sent away to convent school in Galway, but burdened by guilt at the fate of her brother, she takes the first opportunity to make what looks like an escape.

Nicholas and Isabel were made for each other, but how will they ever know it? Four Letters of Love is a novel about destiny, acceptance and the tragedies and miracles of everyday life. Most of all it is an unforgettable tale about the illuminating power of love, and how all our stories meet in the end.

Niall Williams was born in Dublin in 1958. He now lives in Kiltumper in the west of Ireland. He is the author of several plays and, with his wife Christine Breen, has written four non-fiction books about life in Kiltumper.