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.
Saltire Scottish Book of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Non-Fiction Book of the Year.
- ISBN10 1555974678
- ISBN13 9781555974671
- Publish Date 1 May 2007 (first published 1 March 2007)
- Publish Status Active
- Imprint Graywolf Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 277
- Language English