Read this when
Angela's Ashes
'Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood.' Somehow, Frank McCourt makes you laugh the whole way through it. 🇮🇪
Who it's for
McCourt tells his childhood in the present tense, in a child's voice that reports hunger, the deaths of his siblings and his father's drinking with deadpan humour.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Frank McCourt's 1996 memoir traces his childhood from his birth in Brooklyn through his family's return to Ireland during the Great Depression. It documents the family's poverty in Limerick, his father's drinking and the deaths of several of his siblings, ending with McCourt emigrating to America as a young man. It won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.
Where to find it
In print (Scribner / HarperCollins), widely in libraries (Libby/Hoopla) and as an audiobook read by the author. Not public domain. Followed by 'Tis. A 1999 film adaptation exists.
Before you start
Heads up: Deaths of three young children.
Age: Ages 16+
When I stand before thee at the day's end thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healing.Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, no. 290
