Walking with Ghosts

Gabriel Byrne is an award-winning actor, film director, producer, writer, and cultural ambassador who has starred in more than 80 films including Miller’s Crossing, The Usual Suspects, Little Women, Stigmata, and Hereditary . He has received three Tony nominations for roles in the work of Eugene O’Neill and was nominated for three Emmys for his television work. Byrne won a Golden Globe Award for his performance in HBO’s In Treatment and in 2018 was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to Irish cinema by the Irish Film and Television Academy. We expect significant media attention for this book, and Byrne is committed to help publicize it across tv and radio. He is also connected in the literary world—we have received an early blurb from Colum McCann and expect more to come. Reflecting on the formative years of his life, Byrne threads intimate childhood memories— morning routines with his father, his dynamic mother’s stories, his first love, and time at the seminary— through his journey to stardom, in a deeply sensual and impressionistic memoir that explores the pathos of what it means to be famous. Interwoven with these stories from his childhood are personal anecdotes from Byrne’s decorated career, including his arrival at the Cannes stage for the breakout hit movie, The Usual Suspects ; performing Eugene O’Neill on Broadway; and starring in the long-running HBO show In Treatment for which he won a Golden Globe. Making cameo but pivotal appearances are Leonardo DiCaprio, Richard Burton, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Gianni Versace, and many others. Byrne also recounts personal struggles, including his battle with alcoholism, fame, and abuse. Literary, nostalgic, and beautifully picaresque, Walking with Ghosts is not a typical “tell-all” celebrity memoir. It will be sure to draw fans and readers of other great Irish memoirs including Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, Country Girl by Edna O’ Brien, All Will Be Well by John McGahern, and The Speckled People by Hugo Hamilton. Walking with Ghosts will be published in December of this year by Picador in the UK and Byrne will narrate his own audiobook.