A Lie About My Father

Sep 22, 2024 1:32 PM

Author:John Burnside

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.

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

Superbly written; poetic in the best sense, summoning up a world of terror and beauty

—— Literary Review

This account of a failed father-son relationship is written with extraordinary beauty and insight... His is a profound meditation on the life of the spirit, and the shadows we all carry in our hearts

—— Bel Mooney , The Times

Marvellously written scenes...few people write more hauntingly... His prose has a poet's delicacy and fine-honed precision

—— Tim Jeal , Daily Telegraph

Anyone who has read Gosse, Ackerley or Tobias Wolff will know that big books can be made about small-time fathers. It's a tribute to Burnside that he maps this same territory and prompts these comparisons while creating a story that is uniquely his

—— Blake Morrison , Guardian

This is a haunting read that will linger long after you close the pages of this book

—— Michelle Stanistreet , Daily Express

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