The November 2025 Late Show Book Club Pick!

"I am such a fan of Niall Williams." -Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake

A profound and enchanting novel set in the rural Irish village of Faha, from bestselling Time of the Child author Niall Williams, about the loves of our lives and the joys of reminiscing.

The rain is stopping. Nobody in the small, forgotten village of Faha remembers when it started; rain on the western seaboard was a condition of living. Now--just as Father Coffey proclaims the coming of electricity--it is stopping. Seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe is standing outside his grandparents' house shortly after the rain has stopped when he encounters Christy for the first time. Though he can't explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed.

This is the story of all that was to follow: Christy's long-lost love and why he had come to Faha, Noel's own experiences falling in and out of love, and the endlessly postponed arrival of electricity--a development that, once complete, would leave behind a world that had not changed for centuries.

Luminous and otherworldly, and yet anchored with deep-running roots into the earthy and the everyday, This Is Happiness is about stories as the very stuff of life: the ways they make the texture and matter of our world, and the ways they write and rewrite us.

Niall's other novels set in Faha include History of the Rain and Time of the Child, which are both available now!

• We started tracking this book on October 30, 2019.
• This book was $9.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 94 times in the past 2,327 days.
• The current price of this book is $8.20 last checked one hour ago.
• This book is at its lowest price in the past 90 days.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is $2.99.
• The lowest price to date was $1.99 last reached on December 14, 2021.
• This book has been $1.99 7 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $12.35 last reached on June 22, 2021.
• This book has been $12.35 4 times since we started tracking it.

• Literature & FictionGenre FictionFamily LifeMultigenerational
• Literature & FictionLiterary FictionBritish & Irish
• Literature & FictionSmall Town & Rural

• Publication Date: December 3, 2019
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 390 Pages
• File Size: 26 KB