AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'The fires on the hills smouldered orange as the women left, pockets charged with ashes to guard them from the night. Watching them fade into the grey fall of snow, Nance thought she could hear Maggie's voice. A whisper in the dark.
'"Some folk are born different, Nance. They are born on the outside of things, with a skin a little thinner, eyes a little keener to what goes unnoticed by most. Their hearts swallow more blood than ordinary hearts; the river runs differently for them."
'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...' (Publication summary)
Adaptations
- form y The Good People Australia : Aquarius Films , 2018 13195142 2018 single work film/TV
Notes
-
Dedication: For my sister, Briony
-
Epigraph: When all is said and done, how do we not know but that our own unreason may be better than another's truth? for it has been warmed on our hearths and in our souls, and is ready for the wild bees of truth to hive in it, and make their sweet honey. Come into the world again, wild bees, wild bees! –W.B. Yeats, The Celtic Twilight.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Hannah Kent, Interviewed by Kelly Gardiner
Kelly Gardiner
(interviewer),
2018
single work
interview
— Appears in: Conversations with Biographical Novelists : Truthful Fictions across the Globe 2018; (p. 105-118) - y The Good People by Hannah Kent : Notes Melbourne : CAE Book Group , 2018 13927190 2018 single work criticism
-
What I’m Reading
2017
single work
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2017; -
What I’m Reading—Kate Forsyth
2017
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2017; -
Hannah Kent : The Good People
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , July 2017;'With irresistible freshness and sympathy Hannah Kent renders a world that is both recognisable and eerily strange. '
-
Caught up in Fairies and Faith
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 1-2 October 2016; (p. 26)
— Review of The Good People 2016 single work novel -
Hannah Kent, The Good People
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 1 October 2016;
— Review of The Good People 2016 single work novel -
Cold Places
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 385 2016; (p. 31)
— Review of The Good People 2016 single work novel 'After reading her début novel about Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last person to be executed in Iceland, no one is likely to pick up a book by Hannah Kent expecting a frothy comedy set in a sun-drenched contemporary location, but even for the author of Burial Rites (2013) this compelling new historical novel ventures into grim and shadowy territory.' (Introduction) -
Review : The Good People
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Monthly , October no. 127 2016; (p. 64)
— Review of The Good People 2016 single work novel -
A Stark Picture of Women's Stifled Lives
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 22-23 October 2016; (p. 24) The Saturday Age , 22-23 October 2016; (p. 18)
— Review of The Good People 2016 single work novel -
Folklore and Order : Hannah Kent Dives into an Irish World of Faith and Fantasy
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 26 September 2016; -
A Pair of Ragged Claws
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 1-2 October 2016; (p. 17) -
Away With the Fairies
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 24 September 2016; (p. 12) -
The Good People by Hannah Kent Review – Beware the Fairies
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 3 Februray 2017; 'Hannah Kent has an affinity for grimmer climates than that of her native Adelaide. Her 2013 bestselling debut Burial Rites was set in a remote community in blizzard-hit Iceland. For her second novel she moves closer to home, but only slightly. The Good People is set in a perpetually soggy valley in 1820s County Kerry. Like Burial Rites it takes its inspiration from a real-life case in which a female protagonist is brought into conflict with the powers that be. But while folkloric beliefs and superstitions were a background presence in Kent’s debut, here they take centre stage. The Good People is pervaded with dark talk of curses and changelings, herbal remedies and rituals designed to ward off the mischief of the “Good People” (or fairies) of the title.' (Introduction) -
Hannah Kent : The Good People
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , July 2017;'With irresistible freshness and sympathy Hannah Kent renders a world that is both recognisable and eerily strange. '
Awards
- 2018 longlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- 2017 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards — Fiction Book Award
- 2017 shortlisted Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction
- 2017 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Literary Fiction Book of the Year
- 2017 shortlisted The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction