A raw and powerful memoir of addiction and recovery, across three continents and multiple drugs, from early childhood through adulthood.
28th July 2025
Hardcover
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
A raw and powerful memoir of addiction and recovery, across three continents and multiple drugs, from early childhood through adulthood.
Description
Following an obsessive mind trying (and failing) to find relief, The Black Pool is a gripping thrill-ride through violent, chaotic underworlds. Tracing the roots of an illness through the failures of youth and adolescence and finally back to childhood, it's about all the wrong places where addicts look for transcendence - from work, to relationships, to writing, to anger.
The Black Pool shows what happens when everything falls apart. It shows us rock bottom and the start of the journey to recovery from there. It's a memoir shot full of holes and shocking clarities. Towards the end, it achieves something like serenity - something like recovery.Critic Reviews
I've never read anything like The Black Pool. There are spiritual echoes of William S. Burroughs and Hunter S. Thompson, and of Sylvia Plath's jocose auto-fictional revelations of her efforts to die and to live, but these sentences are all Tim MacGabhann's own, and each one is a joyful thrill. His language is flamboyant, huge, dexterous, as alive as ink on paper can be. This is a wildly brilliant account of a life lived in a struggle against terrible pain, a memoir of addiction and recovery for the ages, a stone cold classic of the form. I was floored by the power and beauty of this book -- Donal Ryan, author of THE QUEEN OF DIRT ISLAND
Raw and powerful -- Books to look out for in 2025 Irish Times
MacGabhann traces the roots of addiction and illness through his youth and childhood, writing about where he tried to find solace and what happened when everything fell apart. A vibrant, darkly humorous writer -- Non-fiction highlights for 2025 Irish Independent
Unflinchingly honest, heart-wrenching and life-affirming -- 10 books we're looking forward to reading in 2025 RTÉ
A gripping and personal story of addiction. -- 2025 Books to Read Irish Examiner
About the Author
Tim MacGabhann is the author of the novels Call Him Mine and How to Be Nowhere, the long poem Rory Gallagher--Live!--from the Hotel of the Dead and the memoir The Black Pool. A book of poems and a book of short stories are also forthcoming.
Product Details
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28th July 2025
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