Critical Praise

"Williams pits the natural vs. the supernatural in a way that seems to make perfect sense when love, penance, and redemption are currents in the undertow. "

——Boston Globe

"Magical...inspired.... "

——Pittsburgh Tribune Review

"A splendid, lyrical, moving novel. "

——Evening Standard

"A sophisticated, literary love story. "

——Memphis Commercial Appeal

"No face of love is left unseen in this stunning fiction debut.... Played against a backdrop of capricious Irish weather, Four Letters of Love is a novel to celebrate. It is a sumptuous attestation of life and love. "

——Arkansas Democrat Gazette

"Lyrical as the lilt of Gaelic, yet stormy as the Irish seas in winter, Dublin playwright Niall Williams' first novel, Four Letters of Love, is hypnotically beautiful, a tale to be savored for its telling as much as for its unusual turns of plot. "

——Anniston Star

"I never thought I would find such an honorable and well-written book about love and truth, men and women, heart and despair-Four Letters of Love is a joy, an acutely evocative and sexual story... and my God, I couldn't put it down. "

——Marianne Faithfull

"Astonishing.... The beauty of it may fill your eyes with tears.... It takes your breath away, and seizes your heart... "

——Men's Journal

" A delicate and graceful love story... formed with unusual authority and grace... filled with marvelous characters, large and small, all depicted with an understated veracity. "

——New York Times Book Review

"Elegiac... a canvas to step back from and rejoice in. "

——Chicago Tribune

"A powerful portrait of tragedy and the redemption offered by love.... A remarkable first novel..... Spellbinding. Brilliant "

——Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Rolls with courage and clarity towards a breathtaking affirmation of magic, miracles, and the power of human love. Read it, and believe in angels. "

——The Times (London)

"Sparkling, lyrical, and touching. . . . Two stories proceed side by side and eventually merge in a dazzling display of emotional and literary pyrotechnics. "

——Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A wonderful story of magic realism, a story about LOVE. "

——Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist

"Two stories meet and blend beautifully in Williams' lyrical, dreamy first novel ... a meditation on the love, both sacred and profane, that shapes us. "

——Library Journal (starred review)

"A wise and beautiful book, a mosaic of loves lost and regained. "

——Edna O'Brien

"The unknowable puzzle of love... is Williams' theme, and the source of the novel's many wonders and surprises. "

——San Antonio Express—News

"Lyrical, romantic, and moving.... a tale of grief, powerful love, and words left unspoken. "

——Redbook