**From the internationally acclaimed Booker Prize-winning author of The
Sea comes a delicious memoir (New York Times) that unfolds around the
author's recollections, experiences, and imaginings of Dublin.
**
As much about the life of the city as it is about a life lived,
sometimes, in the city, John Banville's quasi-memoir is as layered,
emotionally rich, witty, and unexpected as any of his novels. Born and
bred in a small town a train ride away from Dublin, Banville saw the
city as a place of enchantment when he was a child, a birthday treat,
the place where his beloved, eccentric aunt lived. And though, when he
came of age and took up residence there, and the city became a frequent
backdrop for his dissatisfactions (not playing an identifiable role in
his work until the Quirke mystery series, penned as Benjamin Black), it
remained in some part of his memory as fascinating as it had been to his
seven-year-old self. And as he guides us around the city, delighting in
its cultural, architectural, political, and social history, he
interweaves the memories that are attached to particular places and
moments. The result is both a wonderfully idiosyncratic tour of Dublin,
and a tender yet powerful ode to a formative time and place for the
artist as a young man.
