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. 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.