Four Letters of Love by Niall Williams

Four Letters of Love is a story about the mystical, often inexplicable ways people find their beloved. It’s hard to describe the beauty and grace of Niall Williams’ writing. His touch is light, his insights powerful, and each sentence overflows with lyricism. His reverence for the lush landscape of western Ireland and the people who dwell there can be felt in every line.

The book’s back cover states that Isabel Gore and Nicholas Coughlan are destined to be together. And though it’s frustrating that they don’t meet until the last third of the book, Williams seems intent on setting the stage first. In the early chapters, he reveals Isabel and Nicholas’ complicated backstories and the emotional forces that shaped them. These stories include childhood wounds, guilt and the complicated dynamics of each set of parents. Williams dissects and untangles those emotional strands with care and wisdom, adding context to their eventual meeting.

When Nicholas visits the island across the sea from Galway to seek a painting his father made, he falls hard for Isabel, and eventually she for him. Given their prior paths, the probability of their encounter is low, and their eventual meeting seems unlikely. To complicate matters, Isabel is already married. Yet out of the chaos and unpredictability of the world, Niall Williams suggests that sometimes blessings appear. Love’s path is not always straightforward, and Nicholas and Isabel’s connection takes time to take hold. The depth of their bond reveals itself most fully through Nicholas’ love letters.

Here is the short chapter in which he describes meeting Isabel for the first time.

“Some things do not bear telling. I think my father knew this. I think he knew how words can sometimes flatten the deepest emotions or pin them like wild butterflies stunned out of magnificent flight, flimsiest souvenirs of what moved and coloured air like silk. Better to image it. Imagine music playing, imagine light falling through the clouds into the morning street and the scent of the island following us as we walked to find the shop. Imagine there was nothing unlovely in the world, and that we walked as proof of miracles, our feet barely touching the path and smiles playing on our faces as the thousand birds sang in the sky. Imagine goodness floated from us into the city air and cars slowed to unwind windows and breathe the thick perfume that smelled like white candles and fresh linen. Imagine all the aches of the world had secretly mended, and music heralded the news, rising along allegro with notes like joy and laughter pealing as we opened the door. This is how I came to see Isabel Gore for the first time.”

Four Letter of Love is a gorgeous novel. Niall Williams pierces his characters’ hearts, reaches into their souls, and conveys their thoughts and feelings in beautiful, poetic prose. Highly recommend. 5/5