Why a Booktrail?
1825: Inspired by a real life event of infanticide,a tale of myth, folklore and “those people”
The Good People
What you need to know before your trail
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…
Travel Guide
Co Kerry – Killarney
Killarney is a magical mystical place if this book and story are to be believed. There is mist on the mountains, damp soil that holds secrets, the aroma of the trees fresh in the air each morning and people, figures who lure children away to the bogs and ringforts of the surrounding hills. Strange lights are spotted in the sky, supersititions keeps communities alive just as much as the food they eat.
Children beg halfpennies on the streets of the town. The filthy lanes are close and oppressive, the market all hustle and bustle. This is a farming community, a close knit and traditional community with superstitions and traditional ideas competing with modern day. Where people live in cabins on mountainsides and where the land is as much a character as the people themselves. The land is their home and it seems to claim its own. The elements and the land prove to be quite a formidable mix. The living and the dead walk together here, the real and the mythical….
Samhain Eve
“People disappeared on Samhain Eve. Small children went missing. They were lured into ringforts and bogs and mountain sides with music and lights, and where never seen again by their parents.”
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
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.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Good People
Author/Guide: Hannah Kent Destination: County Kerry, Killarney Departure Time: 1825
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