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McGahern’s ‘masterpiece: the sort of book which you can give anyone of any age and know that they will be changed by it’ (Colm Tóibín) by ‘one of the greatest writers of our era’ (Hilary Mantel).
‘A book that can be read in two hours, but will linger in the mind for decades.’ Sunday Telegraph
Once an officer in the Irish War for Independence, Moran is now a widower, eking out a living on a small farm where he raises his two sons and three daughters. Adrift from the structure and security of the military, he keeps control by binding his family close to him. But as his children grow older and seek independence, and as the passing years bring with them bewildering change, Moran struggles to find a balance between love and tyranny.
‘McGahern brings us that tonic gift of the best fiction, the sense of truth – the sense of transparency that permits us to see imaginary lives more clearly than we see our own.’ John Updike
‘An overwhelming experience.’ The Times
‘Wise and compelling … Elegiac and graceful.’ David Mitchell
‘I have admired, even loved, John McGahern’s work since his first novel.’ Melvyn Bragg
Born in 1934, John McGahern was the eldest of seven children, raised on a farm in the West of Ireland. The son of a Garda sergeant who had served as an IRA volunteer in the Irish War of Independence, he was devastated by his mother’s death when he was nine. An outstanding student, McGahern studied at University College Dublin and…
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Authors’ letters provide fascinating insights into the personalities and social context behind some of the greatest works of our time.