Chest Pain

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 BuddhistA compelling memoir. Absorbing and graced with a deceptive lightness of touch ... Harding writes like an angel - Sunday Times on Hanging with the ElephantHilarious, and tender, and mad, and harrowing, and wistful, and always beautifully written. A wonderful book - Kevin Barry on Staring at LakesWonderful ... 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 ElephantA 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”

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

Michael Harding is an author and playwright. A recipient of the Stewart Parker Award for theatre, a Hennessy Award for Short Stories and a Bank of Ireland/RTE award for Excellence in the Arts in 1990, he has written numerous plays for the Abbey Theatre and was writer in association with the National Theatre in 1993.

His novels include Bird in the Snow, The Trouble with Sarah Gullion and Priest. He is also the author of several bestselling memoirs including Staring at Lakes (winner of the Bord Gais Energy Book of the Year award), Hanging with the Elephant, Talking to Strangers, On Tuesdays I'm a Buddhist, Chest Pain and What is Beautiful in the Sky.

He is a member of Aosdana, a columnist for over fifteen years with The Irish Times and his podcasts are available on the Patreon platform.

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.

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