Noel Crowe, a 78-year-old man, reminisces about his life in a small Irish village nearly 60 years before. He marvels at the strange new acquaintance sitting beside him all those many years ago.

Some people understand the privilege of stillness and can sit and breathe and look and hear and smell the world turning and let what’s next wait the while.

— Nial Williams, This is Happiness (London: Bloomsbury, 2019), 38.