Description: In 35 years and dozens of return trips to Ireland, Lynch has found a template for the larger world inside the small one, the planet in the local parish. Part memoir, part cultural study, this is a brilliant, often comedic guidebook for those Lynch calls "fellow travelers, fellow pilgrims" making their way through the complexities of their own lives and times.
Brief description: Thomas Lynch's stories, poems, and essays have appeared in Granta, the Atlantic, Harper's, the New York Times, and elsewhere. His first collection of essays, The Undertaking, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Lynch lives in Milford, Michigan.
Review Quotes: Thomas Lynch is one of our indispensable essayists, a master of skeptical realism and tragicomic relief. The true subject of this generous, rowdy book is Lynch's own wonderful mind, as it bobs and weaves, making connections between the personal and the tribal, history and the present moment, in language that is gorgeous and consistently apt.--Phillip Lopate, author of Getting Personal and Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan