A Very Strange Man

Reviews / Votes

I can't remember when I've read such a moving memoir, or one written with such raw honesty ... It's also compelling; I couldn't put it down. It stands out for the clear-eyed view of a wife who doesn't shy away from sometimes portraying herself in an unfavourable light. -- Sue Leonard * Books Ireland * a subtle and memorable book ... clear-eyed and candid, but generous too and wise -- Colm Toibin * The Irish Times * Powerful and moving. Above all, this is a book about the emotional challenges of caring for someone with dementia - proving that grief really is the price we pay for love. * Sunday Business Post * Your book of the year?



So far, A Very Strange Man, by Alannah Hopkin. This is a strangely consoling memoir, and a very rare thing, being an accurate, candid, and moving book about what it is like to be a writer and to live with a writer. I began it the other morning outside in the sun and finished it some hours later, with a mild sunburn and a sense of great gratitude. -- Sebastian Barry * Irish Independent * 'among the richest accounts I've ever read of lives devoted to writing.' -- Rob Doyle * Irish Times * Hopkin's straightforward approach suits the biographical record, but her writing comes into its own whenever she exercises her gift for topographical evocation: "Every tiny stone-walled field had a wealth of meadow grasses and wild flowers" -- Patricia Craig * The Times Literary Supplement *