In Kiltumper

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents In Kiltumper by Niall Williams and Christine Breen, read by Niall Williams and Christine Breen.

Poignant ... A meditation on life, love and the importance of nature' IRISH TIMES

When they were in their twenties, Niall Williams and Christine Breen made the impulsive decision to leave New York City and move to Christine’s ancestral home in the town of Kiltumper in rural Ireland. In the decades that followed, the pair dedicated themselves to writing, gardening and living a life that followed the rhythms of the earth.

In 2019, with Christine in the final stages of recovery from cancer and the surrounding land threatened by the arrival of turbines, Niall and Christine decided to document a year – in words and Christine's drawings – of living in their garden and in their small corner of a rapidly changing world. Proceeding month by month through the year, this is the story of a garden in all its many splendours, and a couple who have made their life observing its wonders.

Critics Review

Moving and surprisingly provocative ... This couple's narrative is more than a January-December chronicle, it is the result of decades of care ... In Kiltumper is as much a book about the cherishing of a marriage as it is about the love of a place ... A heartfelt paean to a disappearing way of life
Wall Street Journal
A record, both honest and beautiful, of a sustainable but precarious way of life
Times Literary Supplement
Poignant ... A meditation on life, love and the importance of nature
Irish Times
Beautifully written ... A wonderfully lyrical and uplifting read
Sunday Business Post
An absorbing and thought-provoking read
Irish Independent
An intimate, meditative garden memoir
Sunday Independent
While the events chronicled rarely move beyond the garden, and while the descriptions are so intimate they almost elicit grief for the dying cherry tree and spark exhortations to the dahlias to hold on to their heavy heads, it is the gardeners’ personalities that bloom
Irish Independent
The small Kiltumper acreage is detailed with a sense of wonder and of pleasure ... Chapter after chapter is enhanced with exquisite pencil drawings ... Frequently quotable, always eloquent ... This is a book full of joy, warmly rich with accomplishment and wonder and a strong sense of mutual commitment
Irish Examiner
Arresting ... Remarkable ... This book, in Seamus Heaney's phrase, catches the heart off guard ... Uncommonly magical ... Read it and be restored to yourself
Irish Central
I loved their two voices, truthful and gentle and generous, so full of care for their land and for each other ... A record of how deeply life can be lived within a garden's walls
GEORGINA HARDING
A beautiful story, with words at once uplifting and poignant. Full of the acceptance and the optimism that only a garden and the act of caring for it brings
JO THOMPSON
I read it with enormous pleasure … There were so many episodes I loved, whether they were heartbreaking or uplifting … It was a delight to step into Niall and Christine’s precious garden, into the rhythms of their way of living, and to be refreshed
TIM PEARS
This is a book to whet one’s appetite — for reading, writing, gardening — and living. I loved the counterpoint of the two voices as they face age, cancer, the struggle to write, to garden — to keep at it — under the threat of wind turbines and the wild Atlantic wind; not to give up. A triumph
Katherine Swift
A celebration of life in rural Ireland
Irish Times, Best books for Christmas 2021
Including beautiful pen and ink drawings by Christine, this is the story of a garden in all its many splendours and a couple who have made their life observing its wonders
Countryside
Whether you like gardening or enjoy reflections on a life lived simply in harmony with nature, this book is a sheer joy ... Niall and Christine celebrate the challenges and joys in delightful detail, from feeding Harp beer to brassicas, to running writing workshops and sharing the good life with friends and family
Woman & Home, Book Club Awards
Here, they record 12 months of work in their garden, capturing their love of the land – which has been in Christine’s family since the 18th century – and also reflecting on the past and anxiously contemplating what the future holds as climate change takes hold. Through everything, their garden is a lovingly nurtured constant
Sunday Express, S Magazine
Twelve months in a cherished garden ... The good life, with its ups and downs
Saga
A celebration of the solace of country life … Country living, Breen reflects, teaches “about darkness and stars, about sunlight and silence, about things out of your control”: about the inevitability of change. The book includes Breen’s elegant botanical drawings. A warm homage to a piece of beloved Irish land
Kirkus Reviews
The book will appeal to any devoted gardener, and it also serves as an inviting snapshot of a place
Kirkus Reviews

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