I grew up reading fairy stories but The Good People gives a frighteningly realistic view of what belief in fairies meant to people dealing with sickness, disease, evil and all the things that go wrong in our lives. It’s set in 1825/6, a long gone world of people living in an isolated community, a place where superstition and a belief in fairies held sway. People talk of others being ‘fairy-swept’ or ‘away with the fairies’, and kept with the music and lights, dancing under the fairy hill.

Nóra is overcome with grief when her husband, Martin, died, feeling as though she was drowning and abandoned, completely unable to cope with Micheál, her four-year old grandson. There is talk that he is ‘fairy-struck’, unable to walk or talk and screaming uncontrollably when he is in pain or upset. She needed someone else to help her and so she hired Mary to look after Micheál. But Micheál did not improve and soon she comes to believe that he is a changeling. After both the doctor and the priest are unable to cure Micheál, Nóra appeals to Nance, the valley’s ‘handy woman’ for help.

This is a beautifully written book. It is not a fairy story, but one in which their existence is terrifyingly real to the people of the valley. The villagers believe that the fairies live in Piper’s Grave, ‘the lurking fairy fort’, at the end of the valley, a place where few people went, a neglected and wild place. People see lights there, glowing near a crooked whitethorn tree that stood in a circle of stone. Nance lives in a cabin in front of the wood a short distance from Piper’s Grave and not far from the river. She was the woman they wanted to help them bring their babies into the world, and who was the ‘gatekeeper’ at the end of their lives, the ‘keener’ when they died. She is the person Nance went to believing she could help bring back the little boy she loved.

I loved everything about The Good People, Hannah Kent is an excellent stortyteller. The characters all spring to life, Nóra, Nance and Mary in particular. It’s not a world I know and yet I felt I did, with its mix of characters, old Peg O’Shea, Nóra’s nearest neighbour who helps when she can and the younger men and women who gossip and are quick to blame Micheál for bringing bad luck to the valley and to condemn Nance, who whilst they go to her for cures, also frightens them.

It is a heart breaking story and as it drew to its inevitable end I was really moved by the effect of fear, ignorance and superstition that brought about such a tragedy. The Author’s Note at the end of the book explains that she drew on a real event from 1826 in writing The Good People. She has researched and listed many works of both fiction and non-fiction and also consulted many historians, curators and academics whilst writing the book.

Many thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a review copy..

Even in modern Ireland, Celtic folklore still makes an impact. As a boy my Dad loved to fill my head with piseogs and old superstitions: it's terrible luck to meet a red-haired woman on your journey, frogs can cure toothache, turning your coat inside out will keep the fairies away (I have tons more). There is a fairy fort on my neighbour's farm which has always remained overgrown, because if you damage one, you're asking for trouble. Schoolkids make a Brigid's cross from rushes every February, which is meant to be hung over doors to ward off evil. And I'm still afraid of the banshee from Darby O'Gill and the Little People (I know it's a Disney film but she's terrifying!)

However there was a time when fairy lore was a central part of everyday Irish life. Based on true events, The Good People is set the Flesk valley of County Kerry in 1825. The story begins with a wake, as Nora Leahy's husband has dropped dead of a heart attack. Stricken with grief, she hires Mary Clifford, a teenage maid, to help her with chores and take care of her crippled grandson Micheál. Nora maintains that the troubled four-year-old wasn't always disabled - a mere two years earlier, he was a healthy and smiling baby boy. Nance Roche, a local healer, convinces Nora that the child is a changeling and that the real Micheál has been swept by fairies, or the "good people" as they are known. She devises a scheme that will see the boy returned to his family, but this plan turns out to have life-changing consequences for everyone involved.

The story focuses on an era in Irish life when paganism and Christianity competed as a source of faith and belief. The local priest was the most powerful man in the parish, but his flock were an uneducated bunch who clung to superstition. Fireside tales of folklore were not only a means of entertainment, they were also a way of rationalising misfortune. A childless couple, a rotten crop - these problems were attributed to upsetting the fairy folk and people used all manner of rituals and potions to keep them appeased.

As fans of Burial Rites will know, Hannah Kent has a real talent for period detail and generating atmosphere. We can almost touch and feel the soggy landscape that events take place in: "the smell of damp soil was everywhere." The poverty and misery of rural existence is always apparent - Nance lives in a windowless bothán with "walls made of wattle and mud, thatched with potato stalks and heather." In later chapters, the wide streets and tall buildings of Tralee town are an eye-opening contrast to the wild terrain that our protagonists are accustomed to seeing.

The dialogue is word-perfect, and hailing from rural Ireland myself I recognised many the phrases and idioms that are still in use to this day. Kent sets an ominous tone early on - we just know that this story will not have a happy ending. Though the pace is little slow in the first half of the novel, momentum really gathers in the second part and I raced through the pages to discover the fates of these unfortunate women. It is such a well-researched and beautifully judged tale. Kent never mocks the characters for their beliefs and extreme as their actions may be, they are carried out with the best intentions. A worthy successor to Burial Rites, The Good People is an faithfully constructed and gripping account of Ireland's relationship with the occult.

I described Hannah Kent's 2013 debut novel Burial Rites as 'Hauntingly Eloquent and Beautiful' and I'm pleased to say that her second, The Good People, is just as compelling.

Set in rural Ireland in the 1820s, the book focuses on Nora Leah, and her severely disabled grandson Michael who is left with Nora and her husband following the death of their daughter.   All seems well with the child at first but by the age of four he cannot walk or talk and keeps Nora and her husband awake at night with terrible screaming fits.  When Nora's husband also dies in mysterious circumstances she becomes convinced that the boy is a changeling, substituted for her real grandson by 'the Good People' or fairy folk. In an attempt to get rid of this imposter and bring her real grandson back to her, Nora enlists the help of her maid Mary and local healer Nance Roche in a series of brutal and barbaric 'cures' for Michael, all of which culminate in tragic and distressing consequences and an enthralling court case.

This is a beautifully written, heartbreakingly poignant tale, rich in Irish folklore, superstition and history.  The lyrical prose and the impoverished, claustrophobic setting give it an ethereal and otherworldly feel while the narrow-minded, suspicious small-town customs and attitudes lend a much darker and malevolent edge.  Nance in particular is persecuted for her non-conformity by gossipy villagers and the local priest alike.  They seek out her cures and potions when they can't afford the local doctor, but shun her when it suits them: "What woman finds contentment in such a solitary life, has no need of children or the comfort of a man?  One who has chosen to walk the boundaries.  One who somehow has an understanding of the mysteries of the world and who sees in the clawing briars God's own handwriting."

Although The Good People is a work of fiction it's closely based on a real case and in her author's note Hannah Kent details her extensive research into Irish folklore, the belief in changelings and the drastic actions people took to banish them.  I loved the resulting novel just as much as her first and I'm sure it will stick in my memory for quite some time.
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Hannah Kent's first novel, Burial Rites was based on real events and so too is The Good People..
It tells the story of three women. Nora, Mary and Nance in an Irish community in 1825.
Nora Leahy, is left widowed and bereft when husband, Martin drops down dead. Her daughter dead too, Nora is left to take care of her daughter's son Michael. Michael, four years old is disabled, unable to walk, unable to talk. On the advice of her neighbour Nora employs Mary to to help and care for her grandson. . As grief takes hold of Nora she begins to believe that Michael is not her real grandson but a changeling, a fairy. taken by The Good People. The only way Nora can believe her true grandson will be returned is to embark on a series of cures overseen by local 'healer, Nance. As the cures become progressively more extreme, the community around then becomes ever more suspicious of Nance and her cures, cows fail to produce milk and bad luck falls two of the families. As the tension mounts tragedy strikes.
I can't say the 'The Good People@ was an easy read, in fact it was deeply unsettling in parts. I found myself internally screaming at Nora as her desperation, ignorance and utter belief in folklore and cures takes such a deep hold over her. My heart broke for Mary who so obviously loved and cared so much for Michael, but was left as an innocent bystander unable to act or rescue Michael.
I felt sorry for Nance, an outcast in a community,intent on embracing the future leaving her and her cures behind.,
The Good People is extremely well researched, the story wonderfully told. The characters, their raw emotion and pain leap off the page and cannot fail to affect the reader. I felt it was a little long in parts but that didn't detract from what is a gem of a novel.

Having only very recently read another Picador publication “The Wonder” by Emma Donoghue it is easy to see parallels between that and this book, Australian author Hannah Kent’s second novel.
Both are set in nineteenth century Irish villages and feature the highly questionable treatment of a child as central. In both novels belief overshadows rational thought. In “The Wonder” it is religious fervour which proclaims a child not eating as a sign of the miraculous, in “The Good People” religion is itself at odds with the lore of fairies and the superstition of deeply entrenched folklore. The local priest can only speak out about this, his influence upon it is limited. In many ways this makes for a book that is darker than Donoghue’s but both are equally effective.
When the son of Nora Leahy’s recently deceased daughter fails to develop in the way he should the locals believe that he is a changeling and that the real Michael has been swept away by the fairies (the “good people” of the title). It is when Nora seeks the help of the isolated local wise woman Nance (described by some as the “herb-hag”) that Nora begins to believe they can get the real Michael back.
The evocation of life in this Irish valley a day’s walk form Killarney, Co. Kerry, is very strong. Is there currently some masterclass about recreating the hardships of nineteenth century rural dominated by peat, mud and potatoes that both Kent and Donoghue attended as they both manage to get this over very convincingly. It is a tough existence where survival of the community is so much to the fore that superstition provides a strong grounding for luck or lack of it. Kent has used a real incident as her starting point and has developed believable characters and highly plausible situations. At times this can make for difficult reading as misery is heaped on the unfortunate child “to put the fairy out of it.”
Anyone expecting tweeness so close to the realm of the fairies would be wrong. What you get from this book is the real sense of how important folklore was to this village’s everyday existence. This suggests seamless research as the book is saturated with the feel of the times. It is dark, has a strong sense of foreboding, with inevitable tragedies and is a very involving read.

The Good People is published in the UK hardback by Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan on the 9th February. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for an advance review copy.

This is a book steeped in the folklore and superstition that I’m sure reigned worldwide at the beginning of the nineteenth century but possibly had its most ardent followers in the Irish countryside with its stories of fairies, changelings and many rituals to ward off evil.
Set in County Kerry in 1825 in a remote valley lying between the mountains of south-west Ireland,near the Flesk river we meet Nóra Lehay when she learns of the death of her husband Martin. Only earlier that year the pair had suffered the loss of their only daughter Johanna and as a result their four year-old grandson Micheál. Poor Micheál is unable to walk and Nora has kept him hidden from her neighbours but now with the house about to fill up with mourners, she decides to give him to her neighbour, Peg O’Shea to mind.
The women gather at the well and swap gossip and Nóra’s bad luck is part of the daily currency. Peg is more understanding, with Nóra struggling to cope as she refuses to take Micheál out of their home, she suggests she goes to the hiring fair to get herself a young girl to lend a pair of hands.
This book is beautifully written and I became immersed in the small house, the winter pressing down on an already bleak home. The simple lifestyle with the local handy woman dispensing herbs and cures for all manner of ills was easy to imagine with the lyrical writing and the occasional Gallic phrase served to add a layer of authenticity to what felt like a meticulously researched book. The superstitions that seemed so quaint at the opening of the book soon take a darker turn with many of the villagers reporting bad luck in the form of the drying up of milk from the cows and the lack of eggs from the hens. These basic needs are so important when the inhabitants are living from hand to mouth, and soon the murmurs of something causing the bad luck begin to turn into positive finger-pointing and some of those fingers point at Micheál.
There is no doubt at all that Hannah Kent knows how to tell a story, she is a master of the show and not tell with the various superstitions on which the villagers rely on are seamlessly interspersed throughout the tale. The atmosphere she creates as the backdrop oppressive with little relief and I felt that I was immersed in a world far away from my home comforts. The characters were well-drawn and although I wouldn’t have wanted to share the bleak winter with some of them, had enough of a back-story for me to understand them. This wasn’t after all a world where a battered wife could up sticks and leave. There is one woman, the handy woman, Nance Roche, who lives close to the part of the forest where the fairies are thought to dwell, whose life seemed to be a litany of hardship, and was one of many who illustrated quite how strong the survival instinct is. Her story combined with that of Mary the maid, just a young teen, confronted with caring for a young boy who couldn’t walk or talk and screamed through the night was almost too awful to imagine. The hardship was sadly all too easy to imagine.
The Good People is a heart-breaking novel which provoked a feeling similar to that I had when reading the author’s debut book Burial Rites, a feeling that the outcome was inevitable, yet I read it desperately hoping for something to happen that would change its course. The story is all the more devastating because like Burial Rites it is inspired by a real event.
I’d like to thank the publishers Pan Macmillan for allowing me to read a copy of The Good People ahead of the publication of the hardback on 9 February 2017, if you want to read it on the kindle, it came out on 31 January 2017.

It has taken me a a couple of days to gather my thoughts on this book. It gave me a lot to get my head around and to understand . I first came across Hannah Kent about a year ago when I read Burial Rites which I loved, so I was really delighted to be approved by the publisher to review this novel.
The Good People I found was beautifully written very atmospheric and bewitching. I loved the elements of folklore fairytale and superstition woven into the narrative. I understand the book came about (or the seed was sown) while Hannah Ken was researching the novel 'Burial rights' an article was found concerning a woman accused of a nasty crime, with an astonishing defence trial.

The Pacing of this book was slightly slow at times but it gave you time to absorb what was happening

I cannot wait for Kent's next book.

Rating

A Bewitching Read

4 out of 5 stars

I had a hard time engaging with this book and its characters. The premise is an interesting one, made all the more spine tingling having been based on the real life story of Michael Kelliher and village wise woman Anne Roche. For all the information that we are all too slowly drip fed, I found it hard to get swept up into the narrative. I also felt, with no small amount of dread, that I had correctly figured out where events were leading quite early on. I feel if this book falls into a strange limbo of historical fiction. With better pacing, it could have been a real page turner but instead it plods along and lets down the source material badly. A disappointment, for what potentially could have been a much more chilling read.

What I did take away from The Good People is a deep curiousity to explore the subject material more thoroughly, without the need for fiction. The insight into rural Irish village life was truly illuminating, and at times heartbreaking. The truth of this deeply ingrained folk belief in modern times is also interesting in and of itself, and the author has helpfully cited several sources worth looking into. It's a real glimpse into the complexities of the human mind, and how far any of us might go on the tiniest shred of pure, unadulterated belief.

I loved Hannah Kent’s previous novel, “Burial Rites,” and was delighted to read her latest novel. This is also set in a rural, isolated community – in this case 1825 Ireland. Nora Leahy lives with her husband, Martin, and her daughter’s son, four year old Micheal. We meet Nora on the day her beloved husband suddenly collapses and dies. As the village community gather in her house, Nora is quick to hide away young Micheal with her neighbour, Peg. It some becomes apparent that Micheal cannot speak or walk and that, having had the boy brought to them by their son in law, after the death of their daughter, the couple have hidden him away from prying eyes.

This is a darkly unsettling novel, which deals with superstition, gossip and blame. Nora drinks and is unable to cope with the loss of her husband. She goes to the local town and recruits fourteen year old Mary Clifford to help her. Nora is alert to every comment about her, and her grandson, and – despite the disapproval of the new priest, Father Healy – she comes to rely on the local wise woman, Nance Roche. A chance remark by her son in law, when he visits, leads Nora to suspect that her grandson is a ‘changling,’ and, with Martin’s death, it feels as though a ‘shadow has dropped on the village.’ As Father Healy says the child cannot be healed, she turns to the old ways, with disastrous consequences…

Based upon a true story, this is beautifully written, but deeply depressing and unsettling to read. It is best when it looks at the relationship between the three women: Nora, Nance and Mary. As Nora attempts to cope with being left alone, aware of how bad luck and superstitions are aimed at her door, she turns to the old ways and the folklore, herbs and healing of those times are recreated extremely believably. Still, this is a novel which is often hard to read, however beautiful the prose. It would be a good choice for book groups, with a lot to discuss and is a haunting read, which will stay with me. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

A very well researched book. Not quite as good as the first one, but a good enjoyable read.. Hannah Kent has the ability to conjure and describe the landscape, lifestyle and superstitions of the time.. A very worth-while read.

Based on real events that took place in early 19th century rural Ireland. Dirt-poor and isolated, this small community is only just scraping by - loss of a breadwinner, failure of crops or a drop in yield from farm animals are devastating. They are superstitious in the extreme, hedging their bets between Christianity and the old folklore of fairies (the ‘good people’ of the title who are neither cute nor well-meaning). Nora, already grieving for her daughter and her husband, is pushed to the very edge of desperation when her profoundly disabled grandson becomes the scapegoat for the village’s recent run of bad luck. She will clutch at any hope of a cure for him and is open to all suggestions, including negotiations with the ‘good people’ she believes were responsible for his condition.

Terrifically atmospheric and strong on detail throughout. Though I found my attention wavered in the middle section, I was riveted by the ending. Just as good as her first novel ‘Burial Rites’ and equally emotionally hard hitting.

Many thanks to Picador for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Ireland, in the mid-1820s, and Nóra Leahy has had a brutal year of it. When her beloved husband drops dead mere months after their only daughter’s death, Nóra is left to care for her grandson Micheál. In any circumstances this would be hard, but Nóra is convinced there’s something desperately wrong with the child. When she saw him as an infant two years back, he was as lively and chatty a boy as anyone could wish; yet the child she’s taken in from his widowed father is twisted, mute and closed in upon himself. He can neither walk nor understand what she says to him; he screams, shrieks and laughs without reason, and she can feel the burden of his care eating away at her. Nóra wants to believe that, with time, Micheál will get better, but she can’t bear it alone; and so she decides to employ a maid.

Mary Clifford believes she’s done well to find an honest widow as her employer, but she’s startled when she realises that her tasks will also include caring for Micheál. But she does her best for the child, taking care to keep him out of sight of the other villagers – for Nóra fears that people will think him cursed – and trying to make some kind of connection with him. Yet she’s aware that Nóra is increasingly drawing away from the boy – worse, she’s beginning to believe that he’s not truly her grandson at all. When both doctor and priest fail to offer Nóra an explanation for Micheál’s sickness, she turns instead to Nance Roche, the healer, the wise woman, who understands the ways of the Good People and may be able to restore Nóra’s healthy grandson, in place of this crippled changeling.

This is a completely convincing tale of a community shimmering on the brink between the known and the unknown, living with a kind of hybrid Christianity which includes ancient customs that have protected them since time immemorial. It looks at how disability was perceived in such communities, and the ways it might be treated. And it’s about the lengths that we will go to, to tackle loss or grief or a feeling of injustice from the world. It’s all the more disturbingly eerie for being based on fact.

For the full review, please follow the link to my blog below:
https://theidlewoman.net/2017/01/21/the-good-people-hannah-kent/

Still mourning the death of her daughter, newly widowed Nora finds herself alone and trying to care for her grandson, Michael. She cannot understand what has happened to turn him from a healthy child into one who can neither speak nor walk. Ashamed and fearful of what her neighbours will say about the afflicted child, she hires a young girl, Mary, to help care for him out of the public gaze. However, rumours about the circumstances of her husband’s death and the presence of an “unnatural” child soon start to circulate. Nora becomes convinced that Micheál is a “changeling” - a child of the fairies or “Good People” substituted for the real Michael. In the hope of restoring her grandson, she enlists the help of Mary and the local wise-woman, Nance, embarking on a path that will have far-reaching consequences for them all.

The author creates an evocative and moving picture of what life was like for people eking out a subsistence existence in 19th century Ireland where famine and homelessness is only ever a short distance away: a cow that stops giving milk; a crop that fails; inclement weather; illness or bereavement.

“They’re worried about the butter. About being forced on the road. About having no money to pay the rent with. About neighbours turning on them, wishing them ill. Wishing sickness and death on them.”

How it can lead to a community seeking answers in the supernatural – in this case, the Good People or fairies who dwell amongst them and who it is believed can bring good or bad luck. The story of Nora and Michael shows the desperate actions to which people can be driven grinding poverty, ignorance and fear and the hatred and suspicion of anyone who is different, like Nance Roche, or afflicted with physical or mental illness, like Michael. Nora is a woman driven mad by grief and although she does some very terrible things, she never loses the reader’s sympathy completely. The fact that the story is inspired by actual cases adds to the sense of realism.

I felt the author created a fully realised picture of a community of that time and its rituals – the customs associated with wakes and burials, gatherings around the well or at the blacksmith’s forge. I thought she captured the lilt and rhythm of the dialect without trespassing into “Oirishness”. There was some wonderfully lyrical writing, particularly descriptions of nature:

‘December arrived and bled the days of sunlight, while the nights grew bitter, wind-rattled.’

‘She thought of how , in the valley, the people would soon pluck the yellow flowers for the goodness they drew from the sun, pulling primrose and marsh marigold and buttercups, rubbing them on the cows’ udders to bless the butter in them, placing them on doorways and doorsteps, those thresholds where the unknown world could bleed into the known, flowers to seal the cracks from where luck could be leached...’

I had not read Hannah Kent’s first novel, Burial Rites, but on the strength of this book, it will definitely be going on my TBR list.

When a novel starts with a traditional murder ballad you know it’s going to be something special. In the hands of Hannah Kent, it’s just the beginning of something even more special. Having loved Burial Rites I was keen, no scratch that VERY excited to read this. It is chilling that it’s inspired by real life events given the subject matter but the whole story, the atmosphere and the time and setting are just exquisitely drawn by Hannah’s pen, with words, rhymes, references to Pagan traditions, stories of fairy people and changelings.....you need to discover what else for yourself.

There’s a lot to this novel with tradition versus modernity and changing communities beating at its heart. I was fascinated throughout.

It’s very ethereal and magical and Hannah paints, weaves and spins a tale so delicate and haunting that you’ll feel quite spellbound by the end.

This novel takes Irish history and folklore and wraps it in a whispery, twirling ribbon. Open it slowly and as what’s inside reveals itself as an Irish flavoured delight.