A Long Stone's Throw

The McCourt family gained fame through the books of brothers Frank and Malachy and in the two popular documentaries that profiled them. In A Long Stone’s Throw, the youngest McCourt adds his gifted voice to this literary chorus with a vivid, emotional memoir that starts in his native Limerick. Alone and dispirited after his brothers leave for America, Alphie flees Ireland as soon as he’s able, spending his adolescence in New York, aimless and half drunk. He reconnects with, and eventually marries, the beautiful Lynn, but things are rough: their daughter, Allison, is born with difficulties, business success alternates with business failures, he continues to drink. Finally, after an epiphany on Route 80, McCourt learns to navigate the happy chaos of New York City.

The McCourt family gained fame through the books of brothers Frank and Malachy and in the two popular documentaries that profiled them. In A Long Stone’s Throw, the youngest McCourt adds his gifted voice to this literary chorus with a vivid, emotional memoir that starts in his native Limerick. Alone and dispirited after his brothers leave for America, Alphie flees Ireland as soon as he’s able, spending his adolescence in New York, aimless and half drunk. He reconnects with, and eventually marries, the beautiful Lynn, but things are rough: their daughter, Allison, is born with difficulties, business success alternates with business failures, he continues to drink. Finally, after an epiphany on Route 80, McCourt learns to navigate the happy chaos of New York City.

Publishers Weekly

Stepping out from the shadows of his talented elder brothers, Frank and Malachy, the youngest of the McCourt clan offers his version of his family's famously miserable childhood in Limerick and subsequent journey to America. McCourt narrates his memoir with a slow, contemplative tone that transcends the limitations of recorded audio as he connects on a deeply personal level with his audience. Though his delivery is slow and straightforward, the melancholy lilt in his voice is Irish throughout, and listeners will appreciate and understand the story all the better because of his reading. A Sterling and Ross hardcover (Review Annex). (Jan.)

The youngest of the McCourt brothers, after Frank, Malachy and Michael, Alphie McCourt grew up in Limerick, Ireland and immigrated to the U.S. in 1959. He has lived in Canada, Dublin, Ireland, and in California and has spent a good part of his life in the restaurant and bar business. His pieces have appeared in The Washington Post, The Villager (New York), The Limerick Leader and in Icons Magazine.