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The Good People
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Published:
Little, Brown and Company 2017
Status:
Available from OverDrive
Description
From the author of Burial Rites, "a literary novel with the pace and tension of a thriller that takes us on a frightening journey towards an unspeakable tragedy" (Paula Hawkins, bestselling author of The Girl on the Train and Into the Water).
Based on true events in nineteenth century Ireland, Hannah Kent's startling new novel tells the story of three women, drawn together to rescue a child from a superstitious community.
Nora, bereft after the death of her husband, finds herself alone and caring for her grandson Micheal, who can neither speak nor walk. A handmaid, Mary, arrives to help Nora just as rumors begin to spread that Micheal is a changeling child who is bringing bad luck to the valley. Determined to banish evil, Nora and Mary enlist the help of Nance, an elderly wanderer who understands the magic of the old ways.
Set in a lost world bound by its own laws, The Good People is Hannah Kent's startling new novel about absolute belief and devoted love. Terrifying, thrilling and moving in equal measure, this follow-up to Burial Rites shows an author at the height of her powers.
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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
09/19/2017
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780316243933
ASIN:
B01NBQEA3M
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Hannah Kent. (2017). The Good People. Little, Brown and Company.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Hannah Kent. 2017. The Good People. Little, Brown and Company.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Hannah Kent, The Good People. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Hannah Kent. The Good People. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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522ab2ae-e89f-d37d-ea0c-cbff2308f262
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Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 17:41:50
Date Updated:
Jun 12, 2018 17:41:50
Last Metadata Check:
Apr 21, 2024 09:14:18
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Apr 21, 2024 09:14:21
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OverDrive Product Record

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      • fileAs: Kent, Hannah
      • bioText: Hannah Kent was born in Adelaide in 1985. Her first novel, Burial Rites, has been translated into nearly thirty languages and was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize), the Guardian First Book Award and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Hannah is also the co-founder and publishing director of Australian literary journal Kill Your Darlings. THE GOOD PEOPLE is her second novel.
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shortDescription
From the author of Burial Rites, "a literary novel with the pace and tension of a thriller that takes us on a frightening journey towards an unspeakable tragedy" (Paula Hawkins, bestselling author of The Girl on the Train and Into the Water).
Based on true events in nineteenth century Ireland, Hannah Kent's startling new novel tells the story of three women, drawn together to rescue a child from a superstitious community.
Nora, bereft after the death of her husband, finds herself alone and caring for her grandson Micheal, who can neither speak nor walk. A handmaid, Mary, arrives to help Nora just as rumors begin to spread that Micheal is a changeling child who is bringing bad luck to the valley. Determined to banish evil, Nora and Mary enlist the help of Nance, an elderly wanderer who understands the magic of the old ways.
Set in a lost world bound by its own laws, The Good People is Hannah Kent's startling new novel about absolute...
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fullDescription
From the author of Burial Rites, "a literary novel with the pace and tension of a thriller that takes us on a frightening journey towards an unspeakable tragedy" (Paula Hawkins, bestselling author of The Girl on the Train and Into the Water).
Based on true events in nineteenth century Ireland, Hannah Kent's startling new novel tells the story of three women, drawn together to rescue a child from a superstitious community.
Nora, bereft after the death of her husband, finds herself alone and caring for her grandson Micheal, who can neither speak nor walk. A handmaid, Mary, arrives to help Nora just as rumors begin to spread that Micheal is a changeling child who is bringing bad luck to the valley. Determined to banish evil, Nora and Mary enlist the help of Nance, an elderly wanderer who understands the magic of the old ways.
Set in a lost world bound by its own laws, The Good People is Hannah Kent's startling new novel about absolute belief and devoted love. Terrifying, thrilling and moving in equal measure, this follow-up to Burial Rites shows an author at the height of her powers.
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reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: The Sunday Times UK
      • content: Taking its inspiration from newspaper reports of a real court case in County Kerry in 1826, THE GOOD PEOPLE is an even better novel than Burial Rites-a starkly realized tale of love, grief and misconceived beliefs.
      • premium: False
      • source: Sunday Herald
      • content: Kent has a wonderful talent for taking fragments of historical facts and breathing life into them through her fiction. She has matched her debut with another disturbing and haunting novel.
      • premium: False
      • source: Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train
      • content: Lyrical and unsettling, THE GOOD PEOPLE is a vivid account of the contradictions of life in rural Ireland in the 19th century. A literary novel with the pace and tension of a thriller, Hannah Kent takes us on a frightening journey towards an unspeakable tragedy. I am in awe of Kent's gifts as a storyteller.
      • premium: False
      • source: Steve Donoghue, Washington Post
      • content: Bleak and beautiful.... Kent handles her starkly austere story with uncanny precision and an utter lack of sentiment.
      • premium: False
      • source: Madeline Miller
      • content: So gripping I wanted to rush through the pages, but so beautifully written I wanted to linger over every sentence. Hannah Kent's debut novel is outstanding.
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        July 24, 2017
        Faith, folk-knowledge, and fear coalesce in remote 19th-century Ireland in this second novel from Kent (Burial Rites). When her daughter and husband die amid what the community considers dark omens—unmoving birds, mysterious lights, a raging storm—Nóra Leahy dreads a future of backbreaking work in order to pay her rent and care for her four-year-old grandson Micheál. Once hale and healthy, the boy was delivered to Nóra’s doorstep after the sudden death of his mother mute, unable to walk, and starving. Bitter gossip at the well and by the hearth questions how Nóra’s luck soured so quickly, why the valley cows’ milk is drying up, and why none of the townspeople ever see the ailing boy. Rumors and dark signs weigh on Nóra until she seeks help outside of her comfort zone: old Nance Roche’s knowledge of the Good People—the fairies. But the old hermit’s cures of nettle, nightshade, and foxglove bring nearly as much risk as reward. Defying the valley’s newly appointed priest, Nance, Nóra, and her young housemaid, Mary Clifford, set out to determine whether Micheál is a boy or the fairy changeling the valley fears him to be. Though rife with description, backstory, and a surfeit of gossip, the book’s pervasive sense of foreboding and clear narrative arcs keep the tale immersive. Kent leads the reader on a rocky, disquieting journey to the misty crossroads of Irish folk beliefs past and future.

      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        July 15, 2017
        A battle between belief systems in rural 19th-century Ireland forms the backdrop for Kent's (Burial Rites, 2013) unblinking examination of the corrosive costs of poverty and ignorance.Nora Leahy becomes the object of gossip and speculation in the rural Irish valley she inhabits after the 1825 death of her laborer husband, Martin. Nora's desperate attempts to hide from her neighbors the existence of the severely disabled grandson who came into her care after the death of his own mother--Nora's beloved daughter, Johanna--soon come undone, and Micheal's presence in the valley becomes the focal point of the malignant attentions of her fellow valley-dwellers, who are seeking an answer and anodyne for a reversal in fortunes that has beset the area. Long-standing belief in the destructive powers of "the Good People," fairylike creatures whose motives and methods are the subject of endless speculation in Nora's agrarian community, leads to hostility against Micheal, who is suspected of being a "changeling," substituted by the Good People in place of Nora's actual grandson. Nora's frantic efforts to recover the happy boy she comes to believe was spirited away by the Good People--who seem also to have visited new plagues and poverty on the valley--are aided by Nance, a grizzled, mysterious woman reputed to know the ways of the frequently malevolent beings, and Mary, a softhearted young household maid. A nerve-wracking series of efforts to banish the creature thought to be masquerading as Micheal illuminates the clash between traditional values and ways of life clung to in the valley and newly emerging beliefs in science--and perhaps a different brand of superstition--encouraged by clergy, the more educated, and residents of a nearby city that seems worlds away. Kent's well-researched tale is inspired by newspaper reports of an actual attempt in 19th-century Ireland to banish a changeling. Peppered with Gaelic words and phrases and frequent references to bygone beliefs and practices, this brutal telling of a brutal story invites discussion and revulsion. If Stevie Wonder is correct, when you believe in things you don't understand, then you suffer. Kent's novel validates his indictment of superstition.

        COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        August 1, 2017
        Kent (Burial Rites, 2014) brings her talent for writing dark and atmospheric historical fiction to this tale set in rural Ireland in 1825. After the deaths of her daughter and husband, in quick succession, Nora Leahy must care for her strangely disabled four-year-old grandson, whom she keeps hidden, alone. At two, Micheal could speak and walk, but now he does neither, and the town begins to whisper about how he's a changeling, taken by fairies and bringing bad luck to the community. Overwhelmed, Nora hires young Mary to ease her burden and soon enlists the help of the equally derided and revered local handywoman, Nance Roche. She knows cures and can speak to the Good People, as fairies are respectfully known, to hopefully restore Nora's grandson. Kent's immersive setting, benefiting from impressive historical research and the use of Gaelic vocabulary, features both a dramatically alive natural world and a believably fearsome supernatural one. Inspired by true events and exploring those places where reason, religion, and superstition cross paths, this will please lovers of haunting literary fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        April 15, 2017

        Having caught our attention with the multi-short-listed Burial Rites, Kent here travels to 19th-century Ireland, where the widowed Nora frets over grandson Micheal, a once happy child unable to walk or talk after the deaths of his mother and grandfather. Now he's considered a changeling, blamed for the run of bad luck in their valley. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

        Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        July 1, 2017

        Set in an Irish village in the 1820s, Kent's harrowing second novel (after Burial Rites) immerses readers in a time and place where folk superstitions mingle with daily life. Though nominally Catholic, the village residents blame fairies, or "the Good People," when any misfortune strikes, be it a stillborn child or poor milk production. After Nora Leahy's husband dies unexpectedly, she is left alone to care for her severely disabled grandson, Micheal. Nora comes to believe that Micheal is a changeling, and with the help of her maid Mary and the local folk healer Nance Roche, imposes a series of increasingly cruel "cures" on Micheal. Kent skillfully depicts a world where anything outside the norm falls under suspicion, particularly women who are not under the protection of a man. To varying degrees, the three central women of the book represent this victimization, which helps bring sympathy to them, despite their terrible actions. VERDICT The lack of understanding of disability leads Micheal to be dehumanized, even by his own grandmother, and his treatment is painful to read. Nevertheless, this work is a worthy contribution to literary collections, particularly those at the intersection of feminism, religion, and folklore. [See Prepub Alert, 3/27/17.]--Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis

        Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • premium: True
      • source: Books+Publishing
      • content: Nóra Leahy has suffered great misfortune. It is 1825 in the far west of Ireland, and her beloved husband has just died, most ominously, at a crossroads, only a few months after their daughter’s death. Nóra is left to care for her grandson, Micheál, but the thriving toddler she last saw is now a four-year-old who has lost the use of his legs, cannot speak and is given to uncontrollable screaming. She engages a young girl, Mary, to help, but as Micheál’s problems continue, she turns to local handy woman Nance for advice, for she is convinced that he is not her grandson, but a changeling—a fairy left in place of the boy. As winter closes in on the community, misfortunes multiply, and the villagers, encouraged by their new priest, start to grow suspicious of Nance and her old ways. And when none of Nance’s remedies drive the fairy out, she must resort to more powerful, more dangerous cures. Hannah Kent’s much-anticipated second novel is a thoroughly atmospheric and involving read with beautifully turned descriptions that show off Kent’s craft, although the difficulty of rendering the Irish cadence without resorting to cliché is sometimes evident in the dialogue. Where it most satisfies is in the depiction of grief and faith, at a time when being a good Christian did not preclude a deep belief in older ways of seeing the world. Readers eager to see how Kent has followed up her bestselling debut Burial Rites should not find themselves disappointed. Lindy Jones is a senior buyer and bookseller at Abbey’s Bookshop in Sydney
popularity
672
publisher
Little, Brown and Company
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bisacCodes
      • code: FIC014000
      • description: FICTION / Historical / General
      • code: FIC019000
      • description: Fiction / Literary
      • code: FIC030000
      • description: Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense