image of person or book cover 270381742856679420.png
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon The Good People single work   novel   historical fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 2016... 2016 The Good People
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'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...' (Publication summary)

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon The Good People Hannah Kent , Australia : Aquarius Films , 2018 13195142 2018 single work film/TV

Notes

  • Dedication: For my sister, Briony
  • Epigraph: When all is said and done, how do we not know but that our own unreason may be better than another's truth? for it has been warmed on our hearths and in our souls, and is ready for the wild bees of truth to hive in it, and make their sweet honey. Come into the world again, wild bees, wild bees! –W.B. Yeats, The Celtic Twilight.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Picador ,
      2017 .
      image of person or book cover 5337014064640317742.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 320p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 9 February 2017
      ISBN: 9781447233350
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Little, Brown ,
      2017 .
      image of person or book cover 2568104359075513659.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 389p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 19 September 2017.
      ISBN: 9780316243964 (hbk), 0316243965 (hbk)
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Back Bay Books ,
      2018 .
      image of person or book cover 5970675572471636818.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 390p.p.
      ISBN: 9780316243957, 9780316243964
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Picador , 2023 .
      image of person or book cover 6868871710805897679.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 400p.
      Note/s:
      •  Published June 2023

      ISBN: 9781761263156
Alternative title: Wo drei Flüsse sich kreuzen : Roman
Language: German
    • Munich,
      c
      Germany,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Droemer Knaur ,
      2017 .
      image of person or book cover 2122926137039411286.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 429p.p.
      Description: illus., map
      ISBN: 9783426199794
    • Munich,
      c
      Germany,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Droemer Knaur ,
      2019 .
      image of person or book cover 3337151441804350706.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 432p.p.
      ISBN: 9783426306604, 3426306603

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.

Works about this Work

Hannah Kent, Interviewed by Kelly Gardiner Kelly Gardiner (interviewer), 2018 single work interview
— Appears in: Conversations with Biographical Novelists : Truthful Fictions across the Globe 2018; (p. 105-118)
y separately published work icon The Good People by Hannah Kent : Notes Jessica Zibung , Melbourne : CAE Book Group , 2018 13927190 2018 single work criticism
Ireland in Fiction Katharine Weber , 2017 single work review
— Appears in: The New York Times , 8 October 2017; (p. 30)

— Review of The Good People Hannah Kent , 2016 single work novel
What I’m Reading Martha Swift , 2017 single work
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2017;
What I’m Reading—Kate Forsyth Kate Forsyth , 2017 single work column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2017;
Caught up in Fairies and Faith Diane Stubbings , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 1-2 October 2016; (p. 26)

— Review of The Good People Hannah Kent , 2016 single work novel
Hannah Kent, The Good People LS , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 1 October 2016;

— Review of The Good People Hannah Kent , 2016 single work novel
Cold Places Amy Baillieu , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 385 2016; (p. 31)

— Review of The Good People Hannah Kent , 2016 single work novel
'After reading her début novel about Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last person to be executed in Iceland, no one is likely to pick up a book by Hannah Kent expecting a frothy comedy set in a sun-drenched contemporary location, but even for the author of Burial Rites (2013) this compelling new historical novel ventures into grim and shadowy territory.' (Introduction)
Review : The Good People Helen Elliott , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Monthly , October no. 127 2016; (p. 64)

— Review of The Good People Hannah Kent , 2016 single work novel
A Stark Picture of Women's Stifled Lives Delia Falconer , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 22-23 October 2016; (p. 24) The Saturday Age , 22-23 October 2016; (p. 18)

— Review of The Good People Hannah Kent , 2016 single work novel
Folklore and Order : Hannah Kent Dives into an Irish World of Faith and Fantasy Donna Lu , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 26 September 2016;
A Pair of Ragged Claws Stephen Romei , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 1-2 October 2016; (p. 17)
Away With the Fairies Deborah Bogle , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 24 September 2016; (p. 12)
The Good People by Hannah Kent Review – Beware the Fairies Graeme Macrae Burnet , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 3 Februray 2017;
'Hannah Kent has an affinity for grimmer climates than that of her native Adelaide. Her 2013 bestselling debut Burial Rites was set in a remote community in blizzard-hit Iceland. For her second novel she moves closer to home, but only slightly. The Good People is set in a perpetually soggy valley in 1820s County Kerry. Like Burial Rites it takes its inspiration from a real-life case in which a female protagonist is brought into conflict with the powers that be. But while folkloric beliefs and superstitions were a background presence in Kent’s debut, here they take centre stage. The Good People is pervaded with dark talk of curses and changelings, herbal remedies and rituals designed to ward off the mischief of the “Good People” (or fairies) of the title.' (Introduction)
Hannah Kent : The Good People Linda Funnell , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , July 2017;

'With irresistible freshness and sympathy Hannah Kent renders a world that is both recognisable and eerily strange.  '

Last amended 15 Jun 2023 11:39:44
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