Staring at Lakes: A Memoir of Love, Melancholy and Magical Thinking

Throughout his life, Michael Harding has lived with a sense of emptiness - through faith, marriage, fatherhood and his career as a writer, a pervading sense of darkness and unease remained.

When he was fifty-eight, he became physically ill and found himself in the grip of a deep melancholy. Here, in this beautifully written memoir, he talks with openness and honesty about his journey: leaving the priesthood when he was in his thirties, settling in Leitrim with his artist wife, the depression that eventually overwhelmed him, and how, ultimately, he found a way out of the dark, by accepting the fragility of love and the importance of now.

STARING AT LAKES started out as a book about depression. And then became a story about growing old, the essence of love and marriage - and sitting in cars, staring at lakes.

“"Written in lyrical prose, it provides a compelling insight into the turbulent emotions that rage behind so many of the bland faces we meet in everyday life."”

'Hilarious, and tender, and mad, and harrowing, and wistful, and always beautifully written. A wonderful book'--Kevin Barry, author of City of Bohane
'It's rare for a memoir to demand such intense emotional involvement, and rarer still for it to be so fully rewarded.'--Sunday Times
'This frank and unflinching memoir offers a fascinating insight into the mind of the author of two of the finest Irish novels of the eighties'--Pat McCabe, author of The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto
'This memoir grabs you from the outset and holds you right to the end. Harding traverses the human soul and excavates its deepest secrets. His language sings. Extraordinary'--Deirdre Purcell, author of Pearl and Diamonds and Holes in My Shoes
Difficult to put down--Irish Times
Engaging--Irish Examiner
I read this book in one sitting ... it held me and wouldn't let go--Irish Independent
Written in lyrical prose, it provides a compelling insight into the turbulent emotions that rage behind so many of the bland faces we meet in everyday life'--Sunday Business Post

Michael Harding has worked in theatre as an actor, director and writer. Most widely known as the author of such plays as Strawboys, Una Pooka, Misogynist, Hubert Murray's Widow, Sour Grapes, and Amazing Grace, all produced by the Abbey Theatre, and more than a dozen other plays for leading Irish Companies, including The Kiss, Talking Through his Hat, and Swallow.

He has directed for The Abbey Theatre, The Project Arts Centre, and Red Kettle, and has worked as a performer with many distinguished theatre companies such as Siamsa Tire, Blue Raincoat, The Abbey Theatre and Gare St. Lazare.He was Writer in Association with The National Theatre in 1993, and Writer Fellow at Trinity College in 2001, and has received numerous awards for his theatre work, including The Stewart Parker Award, The Bank of Ireland RTE Award, and Best Male Performer at Dublin Theatre Fringe Festival.

His most recent work, The Tinker's Curse, toured Ireland in 2011.

He is the author of three novels: Priest, The Trouble with Sarah Gullion and Bird in the Snow.

Throughout his life, Michael Harding has lived with a sense of emptiness - through faith, marriage, fatherhood and his career as a writer, a pervading sense of darkness and unease remained.When he was fifty-eight, he became physically ill and found himself in the grip of a deep melancholy. Here, in this beautifully written memoir, he talks with openness and honesty about his journey: leaving the priesthood when he was in his thirties, settling in Leitrim with his artist wife, the depression that eventually overwhelmed him, and how, ultimately, he found a way out of the dark, by accepting the fragility of love and the importance of now. STARING AT LAKES started out as a book about depression. And then became a story about growing old, the essence of love and marriage - and sitting in cars, staring at lakes.

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