Book description
A funny, direct, lively and moving account of growing up in small-town
Ireland. Healy lovingly coaxes his childhood into being until, one day,
his elderly mother hands him the coded diary he kept as a teenage
tearaway and the uncut past burst in like a blast of raw air. Dermot
Healy was born in Finea, Co. Westmeath, in 1947. He is the author of the
story collection
Banished Misfortune (1982)
, which won two Hennessay Awards and the Tom Gallon Award, and of two
novels, Fighting with Shadows
(1984) and A Goat's Song
(1994), which won the 1995 Encore Award. He wrote the screenplay for
Cathal Black's film, Our Boys,
about the Christian Brothers, and his plays include On Broken Wings
and Last Night's Fun.
Healy has also written a volume of poetry, The Ballyconnell Colours
(1992), edited the journal The Drumlin,
and was the founding editor of Force 10,
which was singled out for praise as one of Ireland's best community arts
journals. He is a member of Aosdána and lives near Sligo.
