A Lie About My Father : Burnside Biographies - John Burnside

A Lie About My Father

By: John Burnside

Paperback | 1 March 2007 | Edition Number 1

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A breathtakingly beautiful memoir of childhood, A Lie About My Father was the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

A moving, unforgettable memoir of two lost men- a father and his child.

He had his final heart attack in the Silver Band Club in Corby, somewhere between the bar and the cigarette machine. A foundling; a fantasist; a morose, threatening drinker who was quick with his hands, he hadn't seen his son for years.

John Burnside's extraordinary story of this failed relationship is a beautifully written evocation of a lost and damaged world of childhood and the constants of his father's world- men defined by the drink they could take and the pain they could stand, men shaped by their guilt and machismo.

A Lie About My Father is about forgiving but not forgetting, about examining the way men are made and how they fall apart, about understanding that in order to have a good son you must have a good father.

'Memoir this good illuminates something larger than itself. It is an exercise in understanding, compassion and forgiveness' Sunday Telegraph

Saltire Scottish Book of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Non-Fiction Book of the Year.
Industry Reviews
"Compelling and profoundly moving... This exquisitely written memoir is, literally, a journey into a heart of darkness - a darkness here lit up by beauty and truth" Independent "An exceptional book... A brilliant feat of sympathy and imagination" Financial Times "Burnside's prose is a delight...Memoir this good illuminates something larger than itself. It is an exercise in understanding compassion and forgiveness" -- Melanie McGrath Sunday Telegraph "[An] exquisitely written memoir" -- Paul Bailey Sunday Times "Destined to become a classic of Scots childhood... A beautiful read, but also a brutal one" Scotland on Sunday

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