John McGahern

With a new foreword by Colin Walsh, this is 'one of the most volatile, vital and unsafe novels in Irish literature', banned by the censor for obscenity in 1965 - and just as explosive today. He was coming and there was nothing to do but wait and grow hard as stone and lie. Mahoney grows up in fear of his father: of his beatings with the heavy leather strap; of the nights he wants love. Seeking to escape the claustrophobic family farm, he contemplates a future in the priesthood, but battles with his tortured conscience amidst adolescent lusts. After winning a scholarship, he takes a stand against the household's toxic violence - and begins a journey towards an understanding that may mean peace. 'A master.' Kevin Barry 'Timeless.' Sinéad Gleeson 'Extraordinary.' Colin Walsh 'Blew me away.' Colin Barrett 'A great writer.' Sebastian Barry 'Exquisite.' Andrew Michael Hurley 'Elegiac and graceful.' David Mitchell 'One of the greatest writers of our era.' Hilary Mantel'The Irish novelist everyone should read.' Colm Tóibín 'The preeminent Irish writer of his generation.' Anne Enright 'I'm grateful for every sentence he left in this world.' Donal Ryan 'One reads McGahern for the textures of time and space, through which each of us travels, often alone.' Yiyun Li

With a new foreword by Kevin Barry, McGahern's 'timeless' (Sinéad Gleeson) novel of rural Irish life is perfect for admirers of Claire Keegan. 'I'm grateful for every sentence McGahern left in this world.' Donal Ryan When the bells rang out for Mass, the strokes trembling on the water, they had the entire world to themselves. Joe Ruttledge has returned to his native Ireland with his wife Kate. Leaving behind their life in London, the couple begin their new existence on a tranquil lakeside farm. Over a year, they become embedded in the rural community: entwined in the dramas of neighbours, friends and relatives, and immersed in the rhythm of the seasons, work, play, religion - and soon, their little world becomes an Everywhere: a universe in miniature, cast in light and dark. 'Extraordinary.' Colin Walsh 'The preeminent Irish writer of his generation.' Anne Enright 'McGahern's exquisite sentences capture every nuance of elegy, regret, yearning and hope.' Andrew Michael Hurley

Introduced by Sinéad Gleeson, John McGahern's Booker Prize-shortlisted Irish 'masterpiece' (Colm Tóibín) is essential reading for admirers of Claire Keegan. As he weakened, Moran became afraid of his daughters. Moran's life is defined by his days of glory as a guerrilla leader in the Irish War of Independence. Now, he is simply an ageing widower, eking out an existence on the small farm where he raises his two sons and three daughters. He keeps control by binding his family close - but as his children seek independence, and the passing years bring bewildering change, this tormented veteran must find a balance between love and tyranny. 'It almost finished me as an aspiring writer. How could a book be this good?' Donal Ryan 'Wise and compelling . . . Elegiac and graceful.' David Mitchell 'The preeminent Irish writer of his generation.' Anne Enright 'He blew me away.' Colin Barrett 'A great writer.' Sebastian Barry 'Extraordinary.' Colin Walsh 'A master.' Kevin Barry

With a new foreword by Yiyun Li, this beloved memoir of an Irish childhood by the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of classics like Amongst Women is a 'healing book' (Sebastian Barry) 'McGahern is about as close as we get to Proust.' Guardian 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. 'A master.' Kevin Barry 'Timeless.' Sinead Gleeson 'Extraordinary.' Colin Walsh 'Blew me away.' Colin Barrett 'A great writer.' Sebastian Barry 'Exquisite.' Andrew Michael Hurley 'Elegiac and graceful.' David Mitchell 'A glowing masterpiece.' Hilary Mantel 'The Irish novelist everyone should read.' Colm Toibin 'The preeminent Irish writer of his generation.' Anne Enright 'I'm grateful for every sentence he left in this world.' Donal Ryan

Bringing John McGahern’s 1965 masterpiece back into print in the United States after years of inaccessibility, this new sixtieth-anniversary critical edition includes an introduction aimed at first-time readers, explanatory footnotes, McGahern’s own glossary, and four scholarly essays aimed at guiding readers through the novel’s famously controversial history. While the text was initially banned in Ireland for obscenity, this edition demonstrates that McGahern’s novel of adolescence is not obscene, but revelatory, exposing the corruption underlying authority structures in mid-century Ireland—from the family to the church, to the government’s willingness to ignore national and communal trauma. The Dark follows a promising young boy’s struggles to break free from the economic and social forces trapping him in a lifestyle that is both familiar and suffocating. At the heart of the novel is the boy’s complex and stormy relationship with his abusive, widowed father, who is left to raise a family with little outside aid. The Dark is a story of alarming brutality, surprising tenderness, and poetic lyricism; a reflection of Irish society that maintains historical significance as contemporary Ireland continues to build its national identity.

By "arguably the most important Irish writer since Samuel Beckett" (The Guardian), a character study of a young resident of Dublin who pens erotica for a living, making his money through fantasy while denying the realities of love and sex in his life. The Pornographer is the story of a writer down on his luck, not a Dubliner but a resident of Dublin penning far from erotic tales to make ends meet. These tales--revolving around the "delicious, unending revel" of Colonel Grimshaw and the typist Mavis Carmichael--form a mordant counterpoint to his own, much more complicated existence. Thirty years old, befogged by alcohol, sensitive yet indifferent to all emotional weather, he meets the slightly older Josephine, a clever, cautiously optimistic magazine editor who soon confesses her love, and though the feeling isn't mutual (as he makes painfully clear) the affair goes on; Josephine becomes pregnant; and, this being Ireland in the seventies, the piper must be paid. Not cruel but callous, the pornographer reels through his days, paying regular visits to a beloved aunt from the country who now lies dying in Dublin, and to his publisher, a citified and cynical Polonius who advises him to "be careful not to let life in." As the days turn into months, he begins to wonder what letting life in might look like. What would it mean, and where would it lead, to do right by others? First published in 1979, John McGahern's fourth novel is a character study of rare and unsparing insight. In rhythmic, lyrical prose, McGahern gives voice to the longing and self-loathing of a soul caught between a traditional world he believes he has rejected and a brave new world of advertised freedoms, sexual and otherwise, which offers no guarantee of love.

'Magnificent.' Irish Times'Much to savour.' The Times'An event in Irish culture.' TLSThe collected letters of John McGahern, 'one of the greatest writers of our era' (Hilary Mantel) and 'the most important Irish novelist since Samuel Beckett.' (Guardian)John McGahern is consistently hailed as one of the finest Irish writers since James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. This volume collects some of the witty, profound and unfailingly brilliant letters that he exchanged with family, friends and literary luminaries - such as Seamus Heaney, Colm Tóibín and Paul Muldoon - over the course of a well-travelled life. It is one of the major contributions to the study of Irish and British literature of the past thirty years, acting not just as a crucial insight into the life and works of a much-revered writer - but also a history of post-war Irish literature and its close ties to British and American literary life.'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

'Magnificent.' Irish Times'Much to savour.' The Times'An event in Irish culture.' TLSThe collected letters of John McGahern, 'one of the greatest writers of our era' (Hilary Mantel) and 'the most important Irish novelist since Samuel Beckett.' (Guardian)John McGahern is consistently hailed as one of the finest Irish writers since James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. This volume collects some of the witty, profound and unfailingly brilliant letters that he exchanged with family, friends and literary luminaries - such as Seamus Heaney, Colm Tóibín and Paul Muldoon - over the course of a well-travelled life. It is one of the major contributions to the study of Irish and British literature of the past thirty years, acting not just as a crucial insight into the life and works of a much-revered writer - but also a history of post-war Irish literature and its close ties to British and American literary life.'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

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles. 'My only concern', John McGahern once said, 'is that I get the sentence right and describe my world clearly and deeply.''The Country Funeral' witnesses three brothers, John, Philly and Fonsie Ryan, as they travel west from Dublin to Gloria Bog - the heart of the territory where so many of McGahern's stories take place - to attend the funeral of their uncle. Depicting the customs and rituals of the day, McGahern exquisitely traces how the brothers react to the area in unexpected and tender ways, and face their own feelings about the transience of life. Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.

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 TelegraphOnce 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

A landmark event: the collected stories of 'one of the greatest writers of our era' (Hilary Mantel) and 'the Irish novelist everyone should read' (Colm Tóibín).'Wise and compelling ... Elegiac and graceful.' David Mitchell'I have admired, even loved, John McGahern's work since his first novel.' Melvyn Bragg'Gentle, lyrical, an amorist of language, a natural historian of the soul.' Irish Times'Exquisite stories . . . Here is a Dublin of tatty dancehalls and uneasy courtships, of kisses in damp doorways and unfulfilled hungerings . . . Writing of extraordinary beauty.' Guardian

An enlightening collection of essays, reviews and speeches by 'one of the greatest writers of our era' (Hilary Mantel) and 'the Irish novelist everyone should read' (Colm Tóibín).'Wise and compelling ... Elegiac and graceful.' David Mitchell'I have admired, even loved, John McGahern's work since his first novel.' Melvyn BraggMcGahern did not spread himself thinly as a writer. Nearly all of his creative energy went into what was central for him: the great novels and stories that are now part of the canon of Irish and world literature. Yet he spoke out when he felt he had something worth saying and his non-fiction writings are of great interest to anyone who loves his work, and to all those interested in the recent history of Ireland. This book brings together all of McGahern's surviving essays, reviews and speeches. In them his canon of great writers - Tolstoy, Chekhov, James, Proust and Joyce - is cited many times, with deep and subtle appreciation. His discussions of Irish writers who influenced him are generous and brilliant - among them Michael McLaverty, Ernie O'Malley and Forrest Reid. His interventions on issues he felt strongly about - sectarianism, women's rights, the power of the church in Ireland - are lucid and far-sighted.

Stories by one of the outstanding Irish writers of today, author of Nightlines, The Barracks, The Dark, The Leavetaking, The Pornographer, High Ground, Amongst Women (nominated for the Booker Prize in 1990) and That They May Face the Rising Sun.

The stories in High Ground are set in ordinary places, in the streets and suburbs and dancehalls of Dublin, the small towns and fields of the midlands, the big houses of the beleaguered Anglo-Irish in the aftermath of their ascendancy, the whole changing country propelled in a generation from the nineteenth into the late twentieth century.

A haunting novel by 'one of the greatest writers of our era' (Hilary Mantel) and 'the Irish novelist everyone should read' (Colm Tóibín). A day, crucial and cathartic, in the life of a young Catholic schoolteacher who has returned to Ireland after a year's sabbatical in London where he married an American divorcee. As a result he now faces certain dismissal by the school authorities. Moving from the earliest memories of both the man and the woman, the novel recreates their breaking of the shackles of guilt and duty into the acceptance of a fulfilling adult love.'A beautiful, irresistible work of imagination. Sunday Telegraph'Wise and compelling ... Elegiac and graceful.' David Mitchell'I have admired, even loved, John McGahern's work since his first novel.' Melvyn Bragg

Now a major motion picture: the Booker-shortlisted Irish author's last novel: a 'masterpiece' (Observer) - 'wise and compelling ... elegiac and graceful' (David Mitchell) - by 'one of the greatest writers of our era' (Hilary Mantel) Joe and Kate Ruttledge have come to Ireland from London in search of a different life. In passages of beauty and truth, the drama of a year in their lives and those of the memorable characters that move about them unfolds through the action, the rituals of work, religious observances and play. We are introduced, with deceptive simplicity, to a complete representation of existence - an enclosed world has been transformed into an Everywhere.'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'I have admired, even loved, John McGahern's work since his first novel.' Melvyn Bragg

The provocative novel by 'one of the greatest writers of our era' (Hilary Mantel) and 'the Irish novelist everyone should read' (Colm Tóibín). A writer of pornographic fiction, creates an ideal world of sex through his two stock athletes, Colonel Grimshaw and Mavis Carmichael, while he bungles every phase of his entanglement with an older woman who has the misfortune to fall in love with him. But his insensitivity to this love is in direct contrast to the tenderness with which he attempts to make his aunt's slow death in hospital tolerable, while his employer, Maloney, failed poet and comic king of pornographers, comes gradually to preside over this broken world. Everywhere in this rich novel is the drama of opposites, but, above all, sex and death are never far from each other.'Wise and compelling ... Elegiac and graceful.' David Mitchell'I have admired, even loved, John McGahern's work since his first novel.' Melvyn Bragg

The celebrated second novel by 'one of the greatest writers of our era' (Hilary Mantel) and 'the Irish novelist everyone should read' (Colm Tóibín) is 'a perfectly written tour de force' (Sunday Times) and 'the best novel to come out of Ireland in many years.' (Irish Times)Set in rural Ireland, John McGahern's second novel is about adolescence and a guilty, yet uncontrollable sexuality that is contorted and twisted by both puritanical state religion and a strange, powerful and ambiguous relationship between son and widower father. Against a background evoked with quiet mastery, McGahern explores with precision and tenderness a human situation, superficially very ordinary, but inwardly an agony of longing and despair.'Wise and compelling ... Elegiac and graceful.' David Mitchell'I have admired, even loved, John McGahern's work since his first novel.' Melvyn Bragg

The iconic debut novel by 'one of the greatest writers of our era' (Hilary Mantel) and 'the Irish novelist everyone should read' (Colm Tóibín). Elizabeth Reegan, after years of freedom - and loneliness - marries into the enclosed Irish village of her upbringing. The children are not her own; her husband is straining to break free from the servile security of the police force; and her own life, threatened by illness, seems to be losing the last vestiges of its purpose. Moving between tragedy and savage comedy, desperation and joy, John McGahern's first novel is one of haunting power.'Marvellous.' Susan Hill, Times'Wise and compelling ... Elegiac and graceful.' David Mitchell'I have admired, even loved, John McGahern's work since his first novel.' Melvyn Bragg'Reminds one of the young Joyce ... McGahern is the real thing.' Spectator

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 TelegraphOnce 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