John McGahern A Writing Life

THE IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2026’Scrupulous and humane . . .

Enlarges the world of McGahern’s fiction’ EDMUND GORDON’A fine tapestry of a man committed to his craft’ IRISH TIMES’ A sensitive, respectful and insightful portrait’ INDEPENDENT ‘A wonderful account of the making of a writer – and what a writer’ SARA WHEELEROn his death in 2006, John McGahern was hailed as the most important Irish novelist since Samuel Beckett. But who was the enigmatic man behind the literary myth?McGahern is often portrayed as a country farmer who happened to have a talent for writing. One of seven children, he was raised in the Irish countryside in a household ruled by his militant father and haunted by the death of his mother.