With a new foreword by Yiyun Li. 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.
