Memoir cover art

Memoir

Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

Memoir

By: John McGahern
Narrated by: Patrick Moy
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £15.90

Buy Now for £15.90

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 great writer.' Sebastian Barry
'The Irish novelist everyone should read.' Colm Tóibín

©2026 John McGahern (P)2026 Faber & Faber
Memoir
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet