Here is a peculiar book I would be hard pressed to summarise. I considered abandoning it many times, and only kept going because I could feel a reading slump coming and I didn't want it to taint a future read I'd anticipated. 
For most of this book I was confused. It is very intricate and jumps back and forward in time so that I had no idea when and where and who I was reading about. The prose was quirky and imaginative, but at the start I thought it was a bit forced. Then towards the end it came together for me and, perhaps because the story became a little bit more linear, I managed to reach the end.
History of the Rain is really a book about storytelling and the love of books and bookish legacies. It is also meandering and you might get bogged down more than once, just like the characters do in the Irish countryside the story takes place in. 
I'd still recommend it, because it has a very special kind of beauty and will appeal to readers who are well-versed in classics and do not fear to be led astray in the narrative chronology. There were more than a few quotable lines that I didn't write down because I was busy finding my bearings in the book. Be warned also that it is a very sad one (have a peek at the content warnings and do ask me if you need more specific ones), although there's this deep, deep faith in literature that brings a little light and hope.