Quotes
“In Regina McBride’s Ghost Songs, there is a mysterious alchemy at play. With a subtle hand, McBride transforms personal horror into poetic myth. In writing this story that happened to her in real time, she creates a book that feels timeless. I was under its spell from word one.” Alice Sebold, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“As a child, Regina McBride’s life was shattered several times over as the adults around her disappeared. Now in glittering, vivid prose she pieces that life together again and allows the reader to follow her in an extraordinary account of love, tragedy, and recovery. Ghost Songs carries us to the heart of grief, and beyond.” Margot Livesey, New York Times bestselling author
“Lyrical…This memoir of survival is even more about reinvention than reflecting on the past. Harrowing, sincere, and unforgettable.” Booklist (starred review)
“Soul-wrenching…[A] powerful depiction of a teenager understanding the complexity of newfound adult responsibility, poverty, and her parents’ identity, while coming to terms with the trauma of loss and her encounters with the miraculous.” Publishers Weekly
“McBride will make you sit up straight with this startling memoir, grounded in singular sorrow: her parents committed suicide one after the other when she was only sixteen. McBride’s subsequent hunt for comfort and belonging took her from New York City to New Mexico to Ireland, where she reconnected with her roots and the gorgeous Irish lore that informs her writing.” Library Journal
“Harrowing yet beautiful, the book is not only an exploration of the interplay between memory and imagination. It is also an eloquent meditation on the painful burdens of the past that parents bequeath their children. A wrenchingly lyrical memoir of family and tragedy.” Kirkus Reviews
“It’s a wonder to me that after reading this book of such intense pain and deep sorrow that I felt―and know I’ll continue to feel―peace and hope…A beautiful memoir.” Michael Thomas, author of Man Gone Down
