In Kiltumper: A Year in an Irish Garden by Niall Williams
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Web ID: 14789234A beautiful & treasured love affair
A beautifully intimate story of a thirty five year love affair with County Clare, Ireland. Niall Williams, and Christine Breen travel to Christine’s ancestral home in the rural town of Kiltumper. There, they begin a life in total contrast to the one left behind in New York City. They dedicate their lives to the sights, sounds, and magnificence of the land. Niall and Christine are blessed to have one another and their appreciation for all that surrounds them is simply intoxicating. Their days are filled with the gifts of the earth, the gardens, the lush colors, the scents, the light and the comforts of the home they created together. Even in Christine’s illness, life in Kiltumper envelopes her with warmth and unending support. This is a refreshing, reflective read. It is a treasure. The prose are so descriptive that I was instantly transported to the magic that is Kiltumper. Many thanks to NetGalley, Bloomsbury Publishing and of course Niall Williams and Christine Breen for sharing this gorgeous journal with me.
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So happy to see these authors again
When I read this couple’s first book, O Come Ye Back to Ireland, I fell in love. With the couple, with their story and the way in which their story was told. I went on to read the other memoirs about their life in Ireland. These included The Pipes Are Calling and Summer’s in the Meadow. Every one of these was beautifully written and I felt that I knew Christine and Niall. I was beyond excited to see that this couple had written another book together. (They have each written other titles separately.) It felt like I was being given a wonderful opportunity to connect with old friends after many years. I adored this book. Its structure allows each author to have a voice. The hardest thing was to realize that, just like all of us, Niall, Christine and their children have gotten older with the passing years. They are no longer the young Irish-American and Irish duo who decided to leave the bustle of the city for their family’s homeland. I was eager to learn how the years have passed for both them, those around them, their farm, their garden and their world. I highly recommend this title. For the full joyful experience, consider going back to the beginning with them. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Great Book
In Kiltumper by Niall Williams and Christine Breen is a wonderful book that has so many components. It is: nature, reflections and memoir, gardening, and also part inspiration. This is the first book that I have had the privilege of reading from this author duo, and now I am most certainly a fan. I have already been exploring their previous books, as I am so enamored by this book. This book takes the reader in this couple’s home, lives, grounds, garden, and at times inner being, as a full calendar year goes by. We can see, smell, envision, feel, and almost experience the colors, sensations, work, textures, and sounds that surround them in their garden and home. The ability to transcribe all of these concepts into prose is just stunning. They take us inside not only their grounds and daily lives, but also their most vulnerable segments of their world. It was fascinating, reflective, personal, and touching. I really felt as if I was there, and I have known them for a lifetime. The transitions from one subject to the next, from one season to another, were smooth and effortless. The balance of memoir and nature was perfect. I truly loved this book and I hope we will be able to continue to follow along with them on their journey. 5/5 stars
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Romancing the Irish Land
A thousand years ago, back in the late 1980's, I was in my first Irish roots-finding phase and picked up a copy of "O Come Ye Back to Ireland: Our First Year in County Clare". It was the story of a couple moving to Ireland to live in the house of their ancestors. It was a charming and eye-opening look at an exquisite dream meeting up with the shock of reality. Fast forward to this year. I saw the listing for "In Kiltumper - A Year in an Irish Garden" by the same couple, Niall Williams and Christine Breen, thirty-five years later. I was unaware that both had been writing this whole time, and now we find them at a crossroads. This struck me as similar to my experience with Facebook... finding friends I had not been in touch with for decades while the whole gulf of young adulthood had been flashing by. The land Christine and Niall have been living in is being threatened. Giant wind turbines are being installed just about on top of them. Trees and ancient roadside stone walls have to be pulverized to accommodate the transport of these turbos. In a land rarely touched by any man-made noise pollution, the fans will be droning day and night. These so-called "wind farms" will hover as mechanical intrusions to a virgin landscape. Add in the very real climate damage done by global warming and you see the concern these two have about the future for a place where time had previously had little effect. Please do not be put off if you fear something approximating a technical gardening manual--my gardening experience is limited to one dubious tomato plant in Boy Scouts. I had fully intended to scan over any details about flowers or vegetables, the way I sometimes (with a tinge of guilt) scan over poetry passages in a novel. I was pulled in, though-- how could I not be? A raging storm is about to make landfall and they are outside meticulously tying plants to bamboo supports. Niall says Chris "...is like a mother whose children are out there in a dark hazardous elsewhere." These people care so much about the struggle to maintain and improve the garden and land they dwell on while wondering if this paradise has any future at all. "In Kiltumper" rates 5 stars for a year's rich experience working the Irish countryside. I also just re-ordered the original "O Come Ye Back to Ireland"-- it is time to revisit old friends. I thank the authors, Bloomsbury Publishing, and NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
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A Memoir of Tending a Garden, a Life & Way of Life
“A person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a piece of the world.” - Wendell Berry Written by Niall Williams and Christeen Breen who have shared their life in a lovely rural spot in County Clare for thirty-five years, this is the story of their love of the land, the garden, and a life that allows for space and time to breathe, appreciating their surroundings, as well as the bounty that gardening can bring. ’All gardens are asking for attention all the time, and the return for that attention is to gift you an essential now, the present moment, where you are face to face with the nature of things. Lest that sound too grand, or abstract, what I mean is the very opposite. There is nothing abstract about the heavy clay growing heavier in the blown rain of Kiltumper, and nothing too grand in “Niall, we need to de-caterpillar the kale now.” 'But there is a kind of happiness.’ - quote from NY Times 2019 interview with Niall Williams Is Anyone Happy Anymore? This is the second of the memoirs written by this husband and wife team that I’ve read, the first being O Come Ye Back to Ireland, which I read some four years ago. Reading any of his books never fails to transport me back to Ireland, but even more so these books in which they share their lives there, living in the place where Christine’s grandfather was born, along with his grandfather, as well. When they moved there, it was somewhat on a whim, eager to live a life on their terms. I doubt they’ve regretted it overall. It is where their children were raised, where they wrote their books, with Chris painting or drawing at times, or in the garden at others, often with Niall, sometimes on her own. A spot on this earth that brings them both joy, It is a garden which feels like home to them, a different form of expressing themselves, and sharing beauty with others. It is a relatively quiet life, living in rhythm with the seasons, the reverence they have for this place, this land and for this life they’ve been given, as well as the life they’ve managed to fashion for themselves. A life that hasn’t always been easy, but it has been filled with love. Love for each other, their family, the land they live on and for the generations that came before them, as well as those that will follow. There’s that sense of wondering what will follow in the future - will their lives, all of our lives, change? Between global environmental challenges and having lived sixty-some years, thirty-five of which have been on this land, in this home - what changes are in the future, and which will be good changes vs. bad? Christine’s health has been a challenge for some time, and it is never far from their minds to begin with, but add to that environmental changes, and life challenges, they always are having to weigh the pros and cons. But then there is the garden, which like most gardens has been an evolution over these thirty-five years, always, always a work-in-progress. It is a part of them, their hearts, souls and bodies are what have tended it, and given the garden life. The garden, in turn, has fed their hearts and souls and bodies, as well, sharing it’s life with them. Many thanks for the ARC provided by Bloomsbury USA / Bloomsbury Publishing
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