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, Alphie, 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. He spends the remainder of his adolescence in New York, aimless and half drunk. A return to Ireland to study law is a dismal failure. Back in America, things aren’t much better until he reconnects with, and eventually marries, the beautiful Lynn. Still, 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, clear-eyed, the happy chaos of New York City, and of life itself.

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, Alphie, 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. He spends the remainder of his adolescence in New York, aimless and half drunk. A return to Ireland to study law is a dismal failure. Back in America, things aren’t much better until he reconnects with, and eventually marries, the beautiful Lynn. Still, 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, clear-eyed, the happy chaos of New York City, and of life itself.