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.

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.

About the Author
Amongst the most acclaimed writers of his generation, John Burnside has just been awarded the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime's achievement in literature. His novels, short stories, poetry and memoirs have won numerous other awards, including the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Whitbread Poetry Award, the Petrarca Prize and the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year. In 2011 Black Cat Bone won both the Forward and the T.S. Eliot Prizes for poetry. His most recent books are The Music of Time: Poetry in the Twentieth Century and Aurochs and Auks: Essays on Mortality and Extinction. He is a professor in the School of English at St Andrews University.

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 *


Awards
Winner of Sundial Scottish Arts Council Book Award: Non-Fiction 2007.



Book Information
ISBN 9780099479536
Author John Burnside
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 234g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 20mm