Amongst Women: 'One of the greatest writers of our era' (Hilary Mantel) - Softcover

McGahern, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571225640 ISBN 13: 9780571225644

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2008

Synopsis

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE
AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME

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

About this title

About the Author

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 became a teacher, but was dismissed when his controversial second novel, The Dark, was banned by the Irish Censorship Board. He moved to London to continue writing and met his future wife, Madeline Green, in 1967, with whom he remained until his death in 2006. The author of six acclaimed novels and four story collections, his novel Amongst Women, was shortlisted for the 1990 Booker Prize and made into a BBC TV series. McGahern held numerous academic posts internationally and was awarded honours including the Irish-American Foundation Award, an Irish PEN Award, the Prix Ecureuil de Littérature Etrangère and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. On his death in 2006, McGahern was celebrated by The Guardian as 'the most important Irish novelist since Samuel Beckett.'

From the Back Cover

Moran is an old Republican whose life was forever transformed by his days of glory as a guerrilla leader in the War of Independence. Now, in old age, living out in the country, Moran is still fighting - with his family, his friends, even himself - in a poignant struggle to come to terms with the past.

Edition details

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571225640
• ISBN 13: 9780571225644
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192