On his death in 2006, John McGahern was hailed as the most important Irish novelist since Samuel Beckett. But who was the enigmatic man behind the literary myth?

McGahern is often portrayed as a country farmer who happened to have a talent for writing. One of seven children, he was raised in the Irish countryside in a household ruled by his militant father and haunted by the death of his mother.

Others think of him as a radical truth-telling pioneer who shattered Ireland’s censorship culture. He became famous in 1965 when his second novel, The Dark, was banned by the censor, leading to his dismissal as a primary-school teacher in Dublin and exile to London.

But McGahern’s personal life has remained deeply private, from his failed first marriage and the secret birth of a son to the moment he met his future wife, Madeline Green. In this magisterial biography, Frank Shovlin argues that McGahern was above all a great artist.

After decades of research, he illuminates this elusive figure, drawing on exclusive new interviews and archival material. Rich in dramatic and intimate revelations, Shovlin brings to life the world that inspired McGahern’s literary masterpieces – and offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of modern Ireland as a nation. The result is the definitive biography of Ireland’s greatest post-war writer.