Nights of Rain and Stars

Recommended by James Adler, cataloger

One of my favorite books, by one of Ireland’s great novelists. It takes place on a small Greek island, beginning in a taverna where about six visitors from different countries, along with the taverna’s owner, watch in horror from their hilltop as a tour boat below catches fire. If we take just the “peace” part of “War and Peace” and shrink even that down to a small fraction, then we get the kind of magical entertainment and truth and wisdom in this novel — which maybe makes it Maeve Binchy’s masterpiece.