The Forest is the Path
- Author Gary Lightbody
- Narrator Gary Lightbody
- Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
- Publish Date 13 March 2025
- Run Time 3 hours and 23 minutes
- Format x-book®
- Genre Diaries, letters and journals, Individual actors and performers, Memoirs, Music, Popular music.
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What to expect
'The pages sing in this beautiful book.' Bono
'Moving and lyrical, The Forest is the Path is an imaginative and deeply personal journey of self-discovery.' The Irish Times
You’re falling through time so all I can do is fall with you.
The numbness had set in long before I sat at your bedside. But even with senses impaired as the flight touches down at Belfast City I can somehow still feel the screeching of wheels on tarmac scorching something deep into me.
Gary Lightbody's phenomenal companion to Snow Patrol's No.1 Album of the same name is a remarkable work of narrative writing.
The Forest is the Path explores some of the main themes of the album; time, home, love, death and life, and serves as a prequel to the record, telling the story of his dad Jack's death. It tracks the journey he went on – a journey whose end seemed to unlock a part of Gary that had been dormant until he started to write songs again.
This is the book that emerged from that time.
‘[An] astoundingly poetic book’ – Pandora Sykes
'Raw…and extraordinary.' – Nihal Arthanayake
'Lightbody's propose is fluid and unflinchingly honest' – The Irish Times
'Absolutely beautiful.' Audrey Carville
‘I have both cried and laughed reading this book. It is beautiful.’ – Muireann O'Connell
Critics Review
'A tender, thoughtful exploration of love and grief. A beautiful book.' Marian Keyes
n'Absolutely floored me. Novelistic and majestic. I've long loved Gary Lightbody as a lyricist. Maddeningly it turns out he can do it in the long form too. This is a brilliant prose debut. I hope there's more to come.' John Niven
n'A stunning meditation on family, grief and creativity, told in gorgeous prose. The Forest Is the Path is an evocative and moving manifesto of loss and love, and a reminder of what's important.' Sinéad Gleeson
n'The Forest is the Path is a lyrical, moving and astoundingly honest portrait of grief. A deeply personal account of a difficult time which will resonate with every reader who's ever lost someone close. Full of pathos, hope and hard-won profundity.' Jan Carson
n‘Lightbody’s experience in songwriting — heartfelt, confessional treasures like Chasing Cars, Run and Open Your Eyes is beautifully rendered in narrative form.’ Sunday Times, Pavel Barter
n'I read it in one go…and then I read it again.' Lorraine Kelly
n'A beautiful piece of work.' Ryan Tubridy, Virgin Radio
n'The book and the album – both are absolutely terrific.' Brendan O'Connor
n‘Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol has written a really beautiful book, The Forest Is the Path, about writing and dealing with the grief of losing his dad. It’s really great.’ Edith Bowman
n'This book is visceral and raw, travelling at breakneck speed through moments of grief, memories and artistic creation.' The Sunday Post (Scotland)
n'Like Joan Didion in her remarkable memoirs about grief, Lightbody is well able to capture the surreality of the disappearance of a loved one out of your life.' The Irish Independent
n'Gary Lightbody's lyricism works just as beautifully on the page as it does in his music.' Loverboy Magazine
n'Much like Dante's dark wood or the mythic journey into the unknown, Lightbody's forest is both an obstacle and a revelation – a place where getting lost is the only way forward.' Irish Times
nUser Reviews
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