Boy in the World

Niall Williams
HarperCollins
€16.60

Having established a deserved reputation for the poetic lyricism of his prose with his best-selling Four Letters of Love and As It Is in Heaven, Niall Williams pulls it off again with this latest offering. Although the main character’s name is rarely mentioned, giving him an ‘Everyboy’ status, Boy in the World is about a personal journey.

The story begins on the morning of the boy’s Confirmation, when his grandfather hands him a letter written by his long-dead mother. Already confused by his identity, from the moment he receives the letter, the boy’s world is turned upside-down. His first instinct is to throw the letter into the fire, but his grandfather retrieves it for him, partly burnt, and persuades him to read it. When the letter mentions the unreadable identity of his father, saying that he worked for the BBC in London, his immediate instinct is to find him.

With only his confirmation money, the boy secretly sets out, along the way meeting both blackguards and guardian angels. He learns lessons, and leaves an impact on those he meets. His quest takes him from London, to Paris, Frankfurt and further, at a time when Europe is being terrorised by bomb attacks. Having discovered the probable name of his father, he Googles him, to find he may be Egyptian, and a Muslim, working undercover in terrorist cells. This leads him to seek knowledge about Islam, and to question religion further.

Saved on more than one occasion by Bridget, a novice nun on the run from her own monotonous life, the boy begins to fear for her safety as he realises everyone belonging to him dies. When he reads in the paper that his grandfather has been killed in a car accident, he feels completely alone in the world, with no reason to go home, until he is guided to the next step.

Boy in the World is more than a contemporary rite of passage story. It is more than a tale about a world stricken by urban terrorism, or a meditation on the existence or not of God. In spite of the tragic circumstances of the boy’s life, his journey is ultimately a redemptive one, with coincidences, signs and intuition leading to a life filled with hope and purpose again. While Williams writes with a simple, philosophical insightfulness similar to Paulo Cuelo, his uniquely exquisite imagery and delicacy shimmers on every page.

Afric McGlinchey
Reviewed in The Irish Examiner