Chest Pain

A man, a stent and a camper van

Michael Harding author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Hachette Books Ireland

Published:4th Jun '20

£8.99

Available to order, but very limited on stock - if we have issues obtaining a copy, we will let you know.

Chest Pain cover

A stunning book about mortality, connection, and the human condition from Ireland's best-loved memoirist

In late 2018, Michael Harding was in a hotel room in Blanchardstown experiencing severe pains in his chest. He eventually phoned an ambulance and was admitted to hospital, suffering from an acute heart attack. Here, in Chest Pain, he looks at the months before the heart attack when he kept the signs of failing health from his beloved and instead retreated into solitude -- and with his own inimitable style and humour takes us with him through the months after a stent had been inserted in his heart, where he travels the roads of Donegal in a camper van in a journey back to the beloved, and to himself.

Chest Pain is a thought-provoking, spell-binding memoir about togetherness and what it means to be alive.

Searingly honest, funny, self-deprecating, Harding's narrative seems to rest on the pulse of Ireland - Irish Times on On Tuesdays I'm a Buddhist

A compelling memoir. Absorbing and graced with a deceptive lightness of touch ... Harding writes like an angel - Sunday Times on Hanging with the Elephant

Hilarious, and tender, and mad, and harrowing, and wistful, and always beautifully written. A wonderful book - Kevin Barry on Staring at Lakes

Wonderful ... Like many people who have achieved a great deal, [Harding] cannot recognise his triumphs. This book, like its predecessor, is one of them - John Boyne on Hanging with the Elephant

A book that champions the kindness (or at least company of) strangers as essential for that elusive state known as happiness - RTE Guide on Talking to Strangers

ISBN: 9781473690677

Dimensions: 196mm x 128mm x 30mm

Weight: 300g

416 pages