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The Forest Is the Path

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The Forest Is the Path

By: Gary Lightbody
Narrated by: Gary Lightbody
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About this listen

'The pages sing in this beautiful book.' Bono

'Moving and lyrical, The Forest is the Path is an imaginative and deeply personal journey of self-discovery.' The Irish Times

You’re falling through time so all I can do is fall with you.

The numbness had set in long before I sat at your bedside. But even with senses impaired as the flight touches down at Belfast City I can somehow still feel the screeching of wheels on tarmac scorching something deep into me.

Gary Lightbody's phenomenal companion to Snow Patrol's No.1 Album of the same name is a remarkable work of narrative writing.

The Forest is the Path explores some of the main themes of the album; time, home, love, death and life, and serves as a prequel to the record, telling the story of his dad Jack's death. It tracks the journey he went on – a journey whose end seemed to unlock a part of Gary that had been dormant until he started to write songs again.

This is the book that emerged from that time.

‘[An] astoundingly poetic book’ – Pandora Sykes

'Raw…and extraordinary.' – Nihal Arthanayake

'Lightbody's propose is fluid and unflinchingly honest' – The Irish Times

'Absolutely beautiful.' Audrey Carville

‘I have both cried and laughed reading this book. It is beautiful.’ – Muireann O'Connell

©2025 Gary Lightbody (P)2025 HarperCollins Publishers
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I identified so much with this audiobook coming from Northern Ireland myself and losing my own dad on NYE 2021. Gary’s story is very heart felt and poetically written. As Gary’s father passed away with dementia it’s as if Gary has captured these moments incase one day he himself cannot recall this very important part of his life. It doesn’t mean that he himself will get the disease but I’d say it’s a very scary thing to have to process and that the fear is real. A lesson to us all to appreciate every moment in life and to never take anything for granted! I loved hearing Gary read it himself and afterwards I listened to the full album ‘The forest is the path’. It’s amazing, as all the other albums before it were! A real credit to Northern Ireland! Well done Gary!

Right from the heart

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This was a beautiful book which definitely needed to be listened to rather than read. Very moving and thought provoking. A soul laid bare.

Outstanding in its honesty

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Loved hearing this book read by Gary himself. It was so honest. He has a lovely way with words and made me chuckle a few times.

The heartfelt honesty of grief.

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This book is a deeply personal and unfiltered exploration of loss and the weight of grief. It’s written with such raw honesty and poetic beauty that every page feels like a glimpse into Gary’s heart. The words carry both great sadness and warmth, capturing the complex emotions of mourning, memory, and finding a way forward.

What makes it even more powerful is how it resonates on a deeply human level—whether you’ve experienced loss yourself or not, you’ll feel every emotion as if it were your own. It’s the kind of book that stays with you long after you’ve turned the last page. It breaks your heart in the most beautiful way and, somehow, put it back together again.

“The world is only heavy if you try to lift it.”
Extraordinary book!

Raw and deeply personal journey through loss and grief

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I have seen Snow Patrol a few times and had the pleasure of attending his book launch in London last week.
I lost my father in 2023 and found parts of this a tough listen.
My overwhelming feeling is this is a love story to his father.
I wish I had your gift of words

Raw Honesty

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