• Walking with Ghosts

  • A Memoir
  • By: Gabriel Byrne
  • Narrated by: Gabriel Byrne
  • Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (16 ratings)

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Walking with Ghosts  By  cover art

Walking with Ghosts

By: Gabriel Byrne
Narrated by: Gabriel Byrne
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Publisher's summary

Walking with Ghosts is the stunningly evocative memoir by Irish actor and Hollywood star Gabriel Byrne.

As a young boy growing up in the outskirts of Dublin, Gabriel Byrne sought refuge in a world of imagination among the fields and hills near his home, at the edge of a rapidly encroaching city. Born to working-class parents and the eldest of six children, he harboured a childhood desire to become a priest. When he was 11 years old, Byrne found himself crossing the Irish Sea to join a seminary in England.

Four years later, Byrne had been expelled and he quickly returned to his native city. There he took odd jobs as a messenger boy and a factory labourer to get by. In his spare time he visited the cinema, where he could be alone and yet part of a crowd. It was here that he could begin to imagine a life beyond the grey world of ’60s Ireland.

He revelled in the theatre and poetry of Dublin’s streets, populated by characters as eccentric and remarkable as any in fiction, those who spin a yarn with acuity and wit. It was a friend who suggested Byrne join an amateur drama group, a decision that would change his life forever and launch him on an extraordinary 40-year career in film and theatre. Moving between sensual recollection of childhood in a now almost vanished Ireland and reflections on stardom in Hollywood and on Broadway, Byrne also courageously recounts his battle with addiction and the ambivalence of fame.

Walking with Ghosts is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking as well as a lyrical homage to the people and landscapes that ultimately shape our destinies.

©2020 Gabriel Byrne (P)2020 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Make no mistake about it: this is a masterpiece. A book that will wring out our tired hearts. It is by turns poetic, moving and very funny. You will find it on the shelf alongside other great Irish memoirs including those by Frank McCourt, Nuala O'Faolain and Edna O’Brien." (Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin)

"Dreamy, lyrical and utterly unvarnished." (Colm Tóibín)

What listeners say about Walking with Ghosts

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Intense

It is almost unbearable listening to Gabriel Byrne reading his memoir Walking With Ghosts. It is so intense and moody and heartbreaking, hilarious, understated, poetic and passionate. I have to take breaks before diving back under the hypnotic spell of it. I was in love with him before but now I want to marry him and live in a windswept cottage in Connemara, listening to him talk.

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Excellent, really enjoyed this book

Loved the flow and range in this memoir, hope to see more from Gabriel in the future. He is a great storyteller.

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    5 out of 5 stars

wonderful memoir.

The narration -performance by the writer gives another dimension to this wonderful, poetic and evocative memoir.

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3 people found this helpful