Imprint
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Ireland, Autobiography: literary, Memoirs, Literary essays, Drug & substance abuse: social aspects
A raw and powerful memoir of addiction and recovery, across three continents and multiple drugs, from early childhood through adulthood.
'A funny, nerve-wracking and utterly compelling memoir of addiction and literature written in a language that is entanglingly inventive, at once cool and lush, and equally capable of conjuring the most delicate sense-memory and hardest heartbreak'
COLIN BARRETT, author of Wild Houses
'Wildly brilliant . . . a memoir of addiction and recovery for the ages, a stone cold classic of the form. I was floored by the power and beauty of this book'
DONAL RYAN, author of The Queen of Dirt Island
'Raw and powerful'
IRISH TIMES, Books to look out for in 2025
'Extraordinary'
LISA McINERNEY, author of The Rules of Revelation
'Unflinchingly honest, heart-wrenching and life-affirming'
RTE, Books we're looking forward to
'Only Tim MacGabhann can break your heart like this - and give you the language to stitch it back together. I urge you to succumb to the ice-cold, visceral glory of the black pool'
BEN PESTER, author of Am I in the Right Place?
Following an obsessive mind trying (and failing) to find relief, The Black Pool is a gripping thrill-ride through violent, chaotic underworlds. Tracing the roots of an illness through the failures of youth and adolescence and finally back to childhood, it's about all the wrong places where addicts look for transcendence - from work, to relationships, to writing, to anger.
The Black Pool shows what happens when everything falls apart. It shows us rock bottom and the start of the journey to recovery from there. It's a memoir shot full of holes and shocking clarities. Towards the end, it achieves something like serenity - something like recovery.
More books by Tim MacGabhann
Praise for The Black Pool: A Memoir of Forgetting
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PRAISE FOR TIM MACGABHANN'S CALL HIM MINE
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A Telegraph Thriller of the Year
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'A wild ride' IAN RANKIN
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'Tough and uncompromising: you'll be glad you read it' LEE CHILD
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'Gripping from beginning to end' INDEPENDENT
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'Pacy and exciting' DAILY TELEGRAPH
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'Vivid and lyrical' GUARDIAN
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'MacGabhann paints an extraordinarily vivid picture of Mexico, in all its seething, sweltering madness and beauty' IRISH INDEPENDENT
Tim MacGabhann
TIM MACGABHANN was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, and began his writing career as a music journalist while studying English Literature and French at Trinity College, Dublin. Since 2013, he has reported from all over Latin America for outlets including Esquire, Thomson Reuters, Al Jazeera, and the Washington Post.
His critically-acclaimed debut novel Call Him Mine was a Daily Telegraph 'Thriller of the Year' in 2019.
His fiction, non-fiction, and poetry has appeared in Gorse, The Stinging Fly, and Washington Square, and he holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia.
He lives in Mexico City.
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