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.
Some folk are born different, Nance. They are born on the outside of things, with a skin a little thinner, eyes a little keener to what goes unnoticed by most. Their hearts swallow more blood than ordinary hearts; the river runs differently for them.
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.
Unable to care for the child alone, Nóra hires a fourteen-year-old servant girl, Mary, who soon hears the whispers in the valley about the blasted creature causing grief to fall upon the widow's house.
Alone, hedged in by rumour, Mary and her mistress seek out the only person in the valley who might be able to help Micheál. For although her neighbours are wary of her, it is said that old Nance Roche has the knowledge. That she consorts with Them, the Good People. And that only she can return those whom they have taken...
Could not put it down!
I have always considered Hannah Kent as one of my favorite authors. Since reading Burial Rites, I am yet to find another author who can paint a picture in my mind quite like Hannah can. When I heard that she was releasing The Good People I was unsure if she would be able to meet the expectations I had because of how much I loved Burial Rites. Not only did she meet the expectation, she blew my mind. By chapter 6 I was finding any spare moment I could to read just a few more pages. I was reading it while I was cooking, while I was walking to work, in my lunch break, until ridiculous hours of the morning. I could not put it down. I needed to know what happened to Nora, Nance and Mary. In the beginning of the book, your heart will be breaking for Nora and Mary, you will be intrigued by Nance but by the end your mind will be in 12 different spaces not knowing what or how to feel. This book was exhilarating, sad, heart breaking and so very twisted. I will now recommend this book to anyone who will stand still long enough.
~ Chaille, QBD Highpoint
QBD - Highpoint, 10/01/2017
