‘Four Letters of Love’: Do we Rely on Faith or Fate?

Thirty years after it first appeared in bookshops, Irish writer Niall Williams’ Four Letters of Love has been adapted for the big screen, with stars including Pierce Brosnan and Helena Bonham Carter bringing the poetic story of love and destiny to a new generation.

Key points:

Four Letters of Love follows Nicholas and Isabel (Fionn O’Shea, Ann Skelly), two young hopefuls who seem totally separate at first.

Nicholas grows up with a father who believes he hears God’s voice and leaves his job to become a painter.

Isabel, on the other side, is a gifted young woman dealing with tragedy in her family and wrestling with questions of faith.

Their lives unfold in parallel, and on the shores of Ireland we see them endure heartbreak, love, and big questions about destiny – until finally, years later, their paths cross.

Speaking from his home in County Clare, Niall reflected warmly on the story’s long journey and the personal truths that shaped it.

Speaking from his home in County Clare, author Niall Williams reflected warmly on Four Letters of Love’s long journey and the personal truths that shaped it.

“I wrote it before I was 40 and I’m now 67,” Niall told Hope 103.2.

“At that time, I think I was questioning [the] decisions of my own life.

“Had I made them or were they waiting for me to appear?”

In writing Nicholas and Isabel’s story, and their wrestle with purpose and faith, Niall was able to work out questions of his own.

“Writing is the way I make most sense of the world and my part in it,” Niall said.

“Writing is the way I make most sense of the world and my part in it,” Niall said.

“I write to find out what I think.

“To see if I can get to a place of meaning.”

Pursuing writing was a risk for Niall, who together with his wife Christine decided to ditch the security and hustle of working in New York for life in a small cottage in the west of Ireland.

“We wanted to answer the question, ‘do you have any talent?’,” Niall said.

“And if you had the time, could you write something?

“We gave ourselves a year and now it’s been 40.”

That same leap of faith appears in Nicholas’s father William (played by Pierce Brosnan), who leaves the civil service to become a painter.

Sensing something more than his cookie-cutter desk job, William has to follow the voice he hears or risk wasting a life he’s certain is meant to offer more.

“It feels like a full circle moment,” Niall said.

“Especially with Pierce Brosnan, himself a lifelong painter, playing the father in the film.

Four Letters of Love is in cinemas now.

“He gave us one of his own paintings, called Four Letters of Love.

“That’s just wonderful.”

Visit hope1032.com.au for your chance to win a double pass to see Four Letters of Love.

Four Letters of Love is in cinemas now.

Feature image: IMDB