- Browse
- Bestsellers
-
Books
-
Popular
Sports
Fiction
Health
Creative
Home & Garden
- Agriculture & Veterinary
- Antiques
- Architecture & Interiors
- Cookery
- Crafts
- D.I.Y.
- Gardening
- Wine & Beverages
Leisure
Irish
- Irish Fiction
- Irish History
- Irish Interest
- Irish Plays & Poetry
- Learn Irish
- Books As Gaeilge
- Limerick & Clare Books
- Genealogy
Other Categories
Book Awards
- Booker Prize
- CBI Book Awards
- Dublin Literary Award
- Irish Book Awards
- Nero Book Awards
- Pulitzer Prize
- Women's Prize for Fiction
- New Adult Book Prize
Specials
Recommended
Gift Wrap Service
-
- Children's
-
Gifts & Stationery
-
Popular
Gift Ideas
Games & Jigsaws
Childrens
-
- Third Level
- School Supplies
Memoir
€ 13.75
ISBN: 9780571399482
With a new foreword by Yiyun Li, this beloved memoir of an Irish childhood by the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of classics like Amongst Women is a 'healing book' (Sebastian Barry)
'McGahern is about as close as we get to Proust.' Guardian
I am sure it is from those days that I take the belief that the best of life is life lived quietly, where nothing happens but our calm journey through the day, where change is imperceptible and the precious life is everything.
Through the sun-dappled mazes of Irish country lanes, a little boy walks with his mother, naming the tangled wildflowers together - a memory that will inspire the rest of his life.
This is the story of John McGahern's childhood: his mother's death, his father's tyrannical violence, his encounters with religion, and how, through his discovery of reading, his dream of becoming a writer began.
'A master.' Kevin Barry
'Timeless.' Sinead Gleeson
'Extraordinary.' Colin Walsh
'Blew me away.' Colin Barrett
'A great writer.' Sebastian Barry
'Exquisite.' Andrew Michael Hurley
'Elegiac and graceful.' David Mitchell
'A glowing masterpiece.' Hilary Mantel
'The Irish novelist everyone should read.' Colm Toibin
'The preeminent Irish writer of his generation.' Anne Enright
'I'm grateful for every sentence he left in this world.' Donal Ryan
368 pages.
Main Re-issue EditionIn Stock.
Usually despatched in 2-5 working days.
Date of Publication: 30/07/2026
Paperback
