I Have Heard You Calling in the Night - Softcover

Healy, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1862079102 ISBN 13: 9781862079106

Publisher: Granta Books, 2007

Synopsis

Thomas Healy was a drunk, a fighter, often unemployed, no stranger to the Glasgow police or to the courts. He came from the Gorbals, that byword for hard men and the school of hard knocks, and his life was going nowhere other than downhill. Then one day, he bought a pup - a Doberman. He called him Martin. Gradually man and dog became unshakeable allies, the closest of comrades, the best of friends. Martin, in more ways than one, saved Thomas Healy's life. This is a story of one man and his dog. Such things can be sentimental. Healy's is a memoir written with refreshing originality and love.

About this title

Review:

* 'A remarkable and moving new book' Mail on Sunday * 'There are some things, some people, we can never forget. Healy and his memoir fit that bill' The Herald (Glasgow) * 'A gutsy yet soft- hearted memoir... Has 'cult read' written all over it' Eve * 'The book can be compared to the two little gems of canine remembrance JR Ackerly produced in his old age- My Dog Tulip and the novella We Think the World of You' Guardian * 'It shines its torchbeam not on the pathos but on the bonded inseparability. It transcends any urge towards bleakness. This book is a testament to redemption, a kind of prayer, a survivor's thanks' Scotsman * 'Even the most hard- hearted, dog- hating non- believer may be experiencing a lump in the throat when they reach Healy's final pages' Daily Mail

From the Back Cover:

"Smart, acerbic, laconic, with nary an ounce of treacle dripping through Healy's muscular prose. A" Entertainment Weekly

Thomas Healy was a drunk, a fighter, sometimes a writer, often unemployed, and no stranger to the police. His life was going steadily downhill. Then one day he bought a pup a Doberman. He called him Martin. Gradually man and dog became unshakable allies, the best of friends. They took long walks together, they vacationed together, they even went to church together. Martin, in more ways than one, saved Thomas Healy s life.

"Healy's memoir tells how the love he came to feel for Martin led him to quit drinking and fighting and make a new life. Healy's tone is whimsical more often than sentimental, but that doesn't prevent him from concluding that Martin was a gift from God. " The Christian Science Monitor
Thomas Healy grew up in Glasgow in the 1950s. He left school at fifteen and worked as, among other things, a shunter in a railway yard, and a security guard at a meat market. He is the author of a book about boxing, A Hurting Business, and two novels: It Might Have Been Jerusalem and Rolling. He lives in Glasgow."

About this edition

• Publisher: Granta Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1862079102
• ISBN 13: 9781862079106
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 508