Walking with Ghosts is the stunningly evocative memoir by Irish actor and Hollywood star, Gabriel Byrne.
Gabriel Byrne was born in Dublin and has starred in over 80 films for some of the cinema's leading directors. He won a Golden Globe for his performance on HBO's 'In Treatment'. On Broadway he won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and has been nominated twice for the Tony Award. He lives in Manhattan and Maine.
The wonder of this memoir is its unembellished truth. It is written
by a man whose amazing story is the stuff of literature
*Edna O'Brien*
So beautiful, it seems extraordinary that [Byrne] has kept this
light under a bushel all this time . . . Gorgeous
*Graham Norton, BBC Radio 2*
An absolutely marvellous book . . . beautifully written, poetic . .
. it’s a really riveting read
*Colm Tóibín*
Gabriel Byrne has written the most beautiful memoir. This is
haunting prose and wondrous, sad, uplifting, my book of the
year
*Claire Keegan*
Walking With Ghosts is lavish with lyricism, but presents a pretty
unvarnished version of its author . . . The book is also a
conscious departure: stylistically ambitious, purposefully (and
successfully) so
*The Guardian*
Thoughtful, moving and without a trace of self-indulgence, this
honest and beautifully-written book reads more like a novel than a
memoir, drawing the reader into a narrative that is full of
courage, humour and above all, humanity. I really loved Walking
with Ghosts and can't recommend it highly enough
*Christine Dwyer Hickey*
Imagine Séamus Heaney's eye falling on Hollywood's glare . . . it
really did remind me of Séamus Heaney, it seemed to have that very
sharp focus and also that wonderfully lyrical way of expressing
it
*Richard Coles, BBC Radio 4*
Make no mistake about it: this is a masterpiece. A book that will
wring out our tired hearts. It is by turns poetic, moving and very
funny. You will find it on the shelf alongside other great Irish
memoirs including those by Frank McCourt, Nuala O'Faolain and Edna
O’Brien
*Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin*
The allure of Gabriel Byrne's memoir is that it persuasively
humanizes what it is to be a big deal movie star. Byrne is
wonderfully without cant or bluster or phony humility. Instead he
leads with felicity, candor, humor and empathy. In the end, he
seems to be somebody you'd be glad to know
*Richard Ford*
Byrne arrives at a truth greater than an honest and sensitive
memoir; he verges on a profoundly touching articulation of our
short time on earth, time that will make of each of us nothing more
or less than a ghost
*Irish Independent*
A wry and warm, swirling poetic reverie of a memoir
*Colin Barrett*
A joy of a book - full of heart and humour, beautifully told
*Sinéad Gleeson*
Destined to be a classic . . . What makes Gabriel Byrne a great
writer is that he knows that whether we are wicked or good, few of
us get what we deserve
*Sunday Independent*
Reading the book was a beautiful experience; it’s superb. It really
is a very special book so if you love someone buy it for them for
Christmas
*Eamon Dunphy*
Structured around an imaginary, haunted visit to the Dublin of his
youth, the book does offer sketches from the movie wonderland –
John Boorman being bossy on Excalibur, testy encounters with
Laurence Olivier in the 1980s – but it is more to do with conjuring
up a now-vanished Ireland. The smell of the Guinness brewery. Early
acting experiences in a nativity play. The church, everywhere the
church
*Irish Times*
The writing is so vivid it’s as if we are by Gabriel Byrne’s
shoulder through the sorrowful times and the joyous moments. He
weaves an intimate and absorbing tapestry of the poignant and the
funny
*Kirsty Wark*
A working-class family memoir as well as a meditation on fame and
its discontents
*Observer*
Walking with Ghosts is exquisite. This book feels like the
culmination of a long literary career and not the debut of a famous
actor. Byrne makes himself fully vulnerable while in total command
of language and form. There is great truth and great beauty in this
close examination of a life and the passage of time. I’ve never
read a memoir so raw and honest and literary and absolutely,
staggeringly brilliant
*Lily King*
[Byrne] writes with much more depth than the typical celebrity
memoirist, accessing some of Seamus Heaney’s earthiness and James
Joyce’s grasp of how Catholic guilt can shape an artist . . . A
melancholy but gemlike memoir, elegantly written and rich in hard
experience
*Kirkus (starred review)*
Mercurial, ferociously honest and moving . . . A poignant symphony
of memories and dreams, longing and loss, in a search for the
immigrants most elusive prize, home
*Karl Geary, author of Montpelier*
A poetic journey into those secret realms of memory which dominate
our lives, but are rarely spoken about. By revealing himself with
such courage, compassion, and exquisite poise, Gabriel Byrne gives
readers that rare gift of being able to see themselves in the
feelings of another person. This book is more than a memoir—it’s a
mirror that reflects the deepest parts of us in exile
*Simon Van Booy*
A remembrance of the Ireland Byrne left behind, one which is no
longer there
*Hot Press, '2020 Books of the Year'*
Dazzles with unflinching honesty, as it celebrates the exuberance
of being alive to the world despite living through pain. [Byrne's]
portrait of an artist as a young boy is steeped in nostalgia of the
best sort, re-creating the pull of home . . . With this tender book
— full of warm and often funny stories — Byrne shows us the depth
of his true character
*Washington Post*
In emotional, evocative prose, Walking With Ghosts describes the
town outside Dublin where [Byrne] grew up, the oldest of six
children crammed into a small house, their father working as a
barrel-maker for the Guinness brewery, everyone in each other’s
business. They were steeped in Catholicism . . . In passages that
are horrifying, then funny, then both, he describes, for instance,
learning the story of Adam and Eve from a fire-and-brimstone nun,
in a lesson that ends with God declaring to the fallen pair: 'And
by the way, your children will be miserable as well.' ('That’s why
the world is such an unhappy place,' the nun adds.) . . . Can you
go home again? That is the tantalizing question raised by Walking
With Ghosts
*The New York Times*
This is a book about grief, loss, the secrets that we keep and the
joys of creativity. It's also about dealing with addiction and the
vertigo of fame. We always knew Gabriel Byrne was an astonishing
actor but now we also know what an elegant, intelligent and
dignified writer he is
*Mariana Enríquez, author of Dangers of Smoking in Bed*
Byrne is very honest and interspersed with all of the beautifully
evoked sadness [in Walking With Ghosts] are very funny moments . .
. you know he has a very good sense of humour but he probably
wouldn’t admit it
*Jane Smiley*
In pared down prose both luminous and raw, Walking with Ghosts is
about first things—parents, siblings, loves, heartbreaks, parts,
failure, success, loss, but most of all it is a tender embrace of
the past as Byrne discovers and accepts the truth of who he is in
all his human struggle to be at peace with oneself and one’s
imperfections. In a voice full of warmth, compassion, humor and
wonder, Byrne steps into the role of writer with the same
assurance, humility and intensity that he brings to his acting
roles. More, this debut marks a welcome new voice that blends
memory and imagination for an all-encompassing and wise memoir that
reads like a novel
*Vanessa Manko, author of The Un-American*
It is at times a heartbreakingly tender excursion between the
living and the dead. The actor is an artist of the written as well
as the spoken word
*Sunday Independent*
A beautifully judged blend of sparkling anecdotes spliced with the
darkest of memories
*The Gloss Magazine*
The diary of a poet who also happens to be a famous movie star
*Monique Roffey*
Actor Byrne channels his fellow countrymen and Ireland's literary
masters - Beckett, Heaney, Joyce, Yeats - to create an
exceptionally lyrical and expressive memoir about his childhood and
early career . . . Bracingly revealing about his struggle with
alcoholism, achingly passionate about the Ireland of his youth, and
piercingly frank about his acting life, Byrne is a vivid,
evocative, and sumptuously compelling memoirist
*Booklist*
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