On the eve of burying her only son, Birdie Waters stays awake all night, examining old photographs, cherishing warm memories, and sometimes disturbed by uneasy ghosts. She remembers her son and his growing up, and her beloved husband and their wonderful life together. Her memory floats from her son's tragic death to her own secret passions, through the private adventures of her life. The next day, after the funeral, Birdie returns home alone, where each day is a triumph, of surviving a little longer. Bird in the Snow is the story of an ordinary life, full of private dramas, loves, and...

In his new book, " Hanging with the Elephant," writer Michael Harding is back in Leitrim in the north-west of Ireland. His wife has left for a six-week trip to Poland and he is alone for the first time since his illness two years earlier. Faced with this time on his own, Harding resolves to examine the threat of depression that is a constant presence in his life and his dependency on his wife, the beloved, since his illness. But, as he attempts to tame the 'elephant' - an Asian metaphor for the unruly mind - he finds himself drawn back to the death of his mother during the summer of...

Throughout his life, Michael Harding has lived with a sense of emptiness - through faith, marriage, fatherhood and his career as a writer, a pervading sense of darkness and unease remained. When he was fifty-eight, he became physically ill and found himself in the grip of a deep melancholy. Here, in this beautifully written memoir, he talks with openness and honesty about his journey: leaving the priesthood when he was in his thirties, settling in Leitrim with his artist wife, the depression that eventually overwhelmed him, and how, ultimately, he found a way out of the dark, by accepting...

Talking to Strangers, from the bestselling author of Staring at Lakes and Hanging with the Elephant, is a book about love, about the stories we share with others, and the stories we leave behind us.

More observations from Ireland's best-loved memoirist.