Author(s): Niall Williams

World fiction

A novel that is simultaneously a universal story about love in all its forms and guises, and an intimate love letter from a husband to his wife. Jim Foley loves his parents, his brother, his sister, Dickens and God; later, he loves Kate - enough to make her his wife and to shape his life around her - and later still, he loves his children, Jack and Hannah. Only Say the Word tells Jim's story, and the story of the people and places in his life, as he moves from childhood to marriage and fatherhood, from early days spent in County Clare to early adulthood in America, and back to Clare once more. Deeply personal and written in his lyrical, lilting prose, Niall Williams's fourth novel is about unspoken emotions, undying devotion and blind faith - but, ultimately, about the redeeming, enduring nature of love.