A Lie About My Father

John Burnside recalls the failed relationship with his father, in the first of his trilogy of exquisite memoirsWith a new introduction by Megan Nolan`A master of language' Hilary MantelHe 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, and 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 TelegraphSaltire Scottish Book of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Non-Fiction Book of the Year