47 pages • 1 hour read
Niall WilliamsTime of the Child
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness and death.
Jack goes into town for breakfast at the hotel. Staring out the window, he reflects on last night’s events. When he brought the baby into his office, he discovered that she was indeed dead. After breathing into her mouth three times, the baby came back to life. Jack is grateful he revived the baby but worries about what to do now. It’s only a matter of time before the town discovers the truth, and he can’t keep the child hidden forever.
After breakfast, Jack goes to Mrs. Griffin’s pharmacy for a bottle. She doesn’t know Jack and congratulates him on the birth, giving him a bottle of the perfume that Annie used to wear for the baby’s mother. Back at home, he hides the perfume in his own things and helps Ronnie with the bottle. He spends the rest of the day seeing patients and trying not to worry about the baby.
Father Coffey appears at the house to give Jack his newspaper because he didn’t pick it up from the postman. Ronnie hides with the baby while Jack meets with Coffey, who informs him that 
