As a young boy growing up in the outskirts of Dublin, Gabriel Byrne sought refuge in a world of imagination among the fields and hills near his home, at the edge of a rapidly encroaching city. Born to working class parents and the eldest of six children, he harbored a childhood desire to become a priest. When he was eleven years old, Byrne found himself crossing the Irish Sea to join a seminary in England. Four years later, Byrne had been expelled and he quickly returned to his native city. There he took odd jobs as a messenger boy and a factory laborer to get by. In his spare time, he visited the cinema where he could be alone and yet part of a crowd. It was here that he could begin to imagine a life beyond the grey world of 60s Ireland.

He reveled in the theatre and poetry of Dublin’s streets, populated by characters as eccentric and remarkable as any in fiction, those who spin a yarn with acuity and wit. It was a friend who suggested Byrne join an amateur drama group, a decision that would change his life forever and launch him on an extraordinary forty-year career in film and theatre. Moving between sensual recollection of childhood in a now almost vanished Ireland and reflections on stardom in Hollywood and Broadway, Byrne also courageously recounts his battle with addiction and the ambivalence of fame.

Walking with Ghosts is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking as well as a lyrical homage to the people and landscapes that ultimately shape our destinies.

Praise for Walking with Ghosts:

“Dazzles with unflinching honesty, as it celebrates the exuberance of being alive to the world despite living through pain. [Byrne’s] portrait of an artist as a young boy is steeped in nostalgia of the best sort, re-creating the pull of home . . . With this tender book—full of warm and often funny stories—Byrne shows us the depth of his true character.”—Washington Post

“The In Treatment star is a graceful stylist . . . finding elegant connections between childhood longings and adult mistakes.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“A moody and melodic memoir—much like the great actor himself.”—Oprah Daily, “Most Anticipated Books of 2021”

“[Byrne] writes passionately about first love and hilariously about life as an actor.”—Colm Tóibín, Irish Times

“Walking with Ghosts is lavish with lyricism, but presents a pretty unvarnished version of its author . . . The book is also a conscious departure: stylistically ambitious, purposefully (and successfully) so.”—The Guardian (UK)

“Remarkably intimate . . . A lyrical and unflinching interrogation of the self . . . The excavations of Byrne’s early traumas . . . are stark and heartbreaking . . . That he’s been able to alchemize these traumas into something so beautiful feels like deliverance, and reads like a gift.”—Dan Sheehan, Air Mail

“Melancholic and poetic . . . What’s clear from the outset is that Byrne possesses that rare ability not just to identify meaningful moments but to recount them in an engaging way.”—RTE

“Pulses with nostalgia and an honesty palpable from the opening pages . . . Byrne arrives at a truth greater than an honest and sensitive memoir; he verges on a profoundly touching articulation of our short time on earth, time that will make of each of us nothing more or less than a ghost.”—The Independent (UK)

“Take any idea of what you might have about a celebrity memoir and put it aside; it’s beautifully written, very literary, and Byrne’s celebrity is almost incidental to his life. Rather than the usual celebrity fare, this one speaks to the heart of the person . . . This is not a long memoir but his writing is so rich it conveys depths.”—Toronto Star

“I have read many biographies and autobiographies in my life- time, but nothing compares to actor Gabriel Byrne’s memoir . . . Much is written in images and vivid memories rather than direct narration, which makes for a very poetic experience . . . a memoir to be experienced and cherished.”—Bookreporter

“Intimate . . . Byrne writes with candor and an exceptional humility, and has an easy hand with clever turns of phrase. Simultaneously frank and emotionally stirring, this memoir entrances.”—Publishers Weekly

“[Byrne] writes with much more depth than the typical celebrity memoirist, accessing some of Heaney’s earthiness and Joyce’s grasp of how Catholic guilt can shape an artist . . . possesses a winning dry humor that reads as authentically humble . . . Byrne is an impressive chronicler. A melancholy but gemlike memoir, elegantly written and rich in hard experience.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Actor Byrne channels his fellow countrymen and Ireland’s literary masters—Beckett, Heaney, Joyce, Yeats—to create an exceptionally lyrical and expressive memoir about his childhood and early career . . . Bracingly revealing about his struggle with alcoholism, achingly passionate about the Ireland of his youth, and piercingly frank about his acting life, Byrne is a vivid, evocative, and sumptuously compelling memoirist.”—Booklist

“It is at times a heartbreakingly tender excursion between the living and the dead. The actor is an artist of the written as well as the spoken word.”—Sunday Independent

“Thoughtful, moving, and without a trace of self-indulgence, this honest and beautifully written book reads more like a novel than a memoir, drawing the reader into a narrative that is full of courage, humor, and above all, humanity. I really loved Walking with Ghosts and can’t recommend it highly enough.”—Christine Dwyer Hickey

“Imagine Séamus Heaney’s eye falling on Hollywood’s glare . . . it really did remind me of Séamus Heaney, it seemed to have that very sharp focus and also that wonderfully lyrical way of expressing it.”—Richard Coles, BBC Radio 4

“A beautifully judged blend of sparkling anecdotes spliced with the darkest of memories.”—Gloss Magazine