A Very Strange Man

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 Tóibín, 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