Monk Swimming

"Malachy McCourt here makes his vivid, whimsical, raucous, murderous joy and voice available to the rest of us in tales of riot and glory which build on the story of the McCourts' early life so dazzlingly told in Angela's Ashes by his brother Frank."
--Thomas Keneally, author of Shindler's List

In 1952, Malachy McCourt left a childhood of poverty in Limerick, Ireland, heading for the promise of America. This is the story of what he brought with him, and what he thought he left behind.

Larger than life, a world-class drinker, McCourt carved out a place for himself in New York City: in the saloons, as the first celebrity bartender, mixing with socialites, writers, and movie stars, on stage and on television, where the tales he spun made him a Tonight Show regular.

He had money and women and, eventually, children of his own; and that's when he found he had not left his memories as far behind as he had thought. He had no choice but to stop and turn and face his past.

Darkly funny, shockingly raw, and everywhere making the English language do tricks the British never intended, Malachy McCourt, a true original, tells this story with passion, wit, irreverence, and charm.