The Forest is the Path

by Gary Lightbody

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, Biography, Audiobook, Memoir

140 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 13, 2025

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreakingly beautiful, emotional and poetic. I adored it.

[Truusje · Rating 4 out of 5]

The focus of this book his the death of Gary's father and to be honest, I was crying by page 2. The writing is raw and honest, yet lyrical. The prose is very much a song writer's with lots of imagery. I read the book in a few hours and I probably need to go back and read it more slowly. Although I'm not sure I've got enough tissues for that.

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We are a constellation within a constellation. The sum of all the actions and events of our life compounded exponentially with the sum of the actions of every ancestor that passed the torch on, and on, and on, through millennia until we ourselves are custodians of that flame for the briefest of flickers of time."

Beautiful. Devastating. Healing.

I didn't realize how much I needed to read this. Reading of Lightbody's experiences as his dad passed was like holding up a mirror to my own experiences of sitting by a loved one's deathbed, already lost to dementia, and the numb aftermath of right after they pass away and the scarring coldness that is left behind. This read was so painful and yet so healing at the same time.

Lightbody was finally able to write about his dad's passing a year after it happened. The song helped me through the darkest moments of my own loss, and I still feel it deeply:

"Time passes but the numbness lasted
And now I'm here in your coat
Raising glasses to you in some past mist
It feels like blood in my throat
I don't want to hope and I don't want to hear it cools with time
I don't want to speak and maybe I don't want it to be fine "

[Karen Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

The master of words has spoken

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a Snow Patrol fan, I’m probably biased. Ok, definitely biased. If you’ve ever listened to their songs, and there’s that one everybody knows, you’ll know Gary puts his emotions & feelings into his lyrics. The book, audiobook for me, is no different. It’s about his late father and the album written after his passing. You may not be familiar with the band or their music but you’ll be familiar with grief. There’s a lot of that here. It’s not all sad. You’ll laugh too. It’ll make you think about memories of loved ones who are no longer here. Suddenly, a memory from 10, 20, 30, 40, and for me, 50 years ago comes roaring back. I did find myself doing that a bit and having to go back and listen to what I missed while I was drifting off into my past. I’m writing this in Philadelphia on the morning of the final stop of Snow Patrol’s North American tour. I was trying to pick a good time to listen and realized today, April 12, was that time. Today is the 30th anniversary of my father’s passing and on this day in 2012, my mom. at the age of 79, attended her last concert. Snow Patrol in Boston. She’d want you to know that even though it was seated she stood for it all. She passed away in 2022. My morning is filled with sadness but when Snow Patrol takes the stage tonight, I’ll be lifted out of all that, even if it’s just for a little while. That’s what music and books have the power to do.

[Curtis Clough · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gary has always been a hero of mine, the person behind the lyrics which inspired me to write my first poems, and then all of what you could be considered to be writing (and the words that still come). It’s an insight into a great man and I hope that he writes a full autobiography someday.

The book is full of beautiful lines from darkness, grief, hope and life. There are so many lines I could have picked but the one that stands out is ‘maybe the meaning of life is love in two directions. Outwards towards others. Inwards towards oneself.’ I struggled not to cry, and it makes you reflect on your own relationship with your dad, one which you can still learn from.

The book itself shows not only an insight into ‘The Forest is the path’ but also from ‘I think of home’ and other songs. I loved reading this, and Gary’s prose is as incandescent as his lyrics.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deep and moving novella that explores the author's grief following the death of his father. The book alternates between chapters directly following his father's death and chapters exploring broader themes entitled Time, Home, Love, Death and Life. These chapters follow themes in the Snow Patrol album of the same name and, whilst you don't need to have listened to it, or indeed to be a Snow Patrol fan, to understand and enjoy the book, I think it could enhance the reading experience.
As you would expect from a songwriter, the writing is lyrical and raw (occasionally rambling!) but also often humorous. A beautiful book with words and messages to be savoured.

[Miss Una Begley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking and fiercely beautiful

Brilliant, but it's broken me a little (maybe more than a little by the number of tissues I've gone through reading it). In the depiction of his grief,  Gary found little pockets of my own that I thought were long gone after 25 years, but clearly not. It is both lovely and devastating to find that there are still wells of that pain still here after that long. If you've ever lost someone you love, you'll likely see yourself in the pages.

A lot of his self-reflection also hit unnervingly close to home, and this is definitely a book I will revisit once I've recovered from this first reading of it.

Highly recommend - it's simply beautiful. But bring tissues. And don't read it in public.

[Vegannic · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short book inside the head and life of Gary Lightbody, about the death of his father and writing their new album of the same name 'The Forest is the Path'.
Brave and honest, and weird. He has a vivid imagination that I struggled to vision at times.
I love the album and this book explains some of the songs.

[Darrel Hofland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gary Lightbody writes well.

He crafts his sentences in a brilliant way.

This book was needed for him to write.  To grieve the loss of his dad.

It's sad, compared to the last book I read, Son of Southtown, how this book lacks hope and comes across negative.

I was hoping for more explanation on the lyrics of the latest album... but this was more an ode to his father and a lesson to us all as readers: be kind to your parents.

[Sarah Weir · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a beautifully written, poetic journey of grief, self reflection and love. I feel this is a book I will come back to time and again, as it had a profound impact on me.

[Fleur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dit is denk ik het mooiste wat ik ooit heb gelezen.

[Ashish Massey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poetic and heartbreaking descriptions of his father’s passing, funeral, reliving the memories and the after effects of this loss really hit home.

[Niamh Madden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and I felt I was in those memories with Gary and his dad, Jack. Tears, laughter and everything in between.

Rumour has it there is a novel coming down the line which I am very much looking forward to.

[Gerdi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow… The book touched me. It took me on its (and Gary’s) journey through time, love, life and death. And it took me on my own journey through time. Memories of growing up, the catchfrases my dad used to say, the music that played an important part in my youth, not understanding and appreciating my parents and the choices they made, not understanding and appreciating myself for a very long time. And also the love from and for my parents: the words never spoken, but love given and felt in so many ways, big or small. Many parts of this book could have been written about my life.

I think this book will stay with me for a while. Playing with my thoughts and memories.

And I keep thinking how brave it is for Gary to write a book like this one. It feels like you dive into his mind and that also gives it a very personal and intimate sort of feeling.

I loved reading it, it made me giggle in some parts and it made me cry in others.

[🌶 peppersocks 🧦 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reflections and lessons learned/the content of this book made me feel…

…like listening to a friend that was keen on opening up about his grief - hard but I can imagine possibly comforting for anyone that’s recently gone through a similar loss? Amazingly honest

[Clau · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like Snow Patrol this is a must read, it makes the songs of the new album shine in a whole new light.
However even if you've never heard a single Snow Patrol song in your life, the account of the process of grief had Gary Lightbody shares is as raw and poetic as grief itself. As someone who went through the loss of a parent in the last year this book specially read by the author had me clinging to every word feeling the rollercoaster of emotions.
Art can heal.

[Matt Rybin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honest, lyrical, sad and beautiful. This is why I love Snow Patrol.

[Martine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guys, it finally happened: Gary wrote a book! And what a gorgeous, lyrical book this is. Meant as a companion piece to the album of the same name, in the book Gary explores recurring themes on the album. In short essays he talks about his experience of time, home, love and death and the central role these have in his life. But at it’s core this book is a contemplation on grief in all it’s contradictory forms: regret and forgiveness, love and hate, chaos and darkness and finally hope and a sort of sad but smile-inducing melancholy.

The journey through grief is beautifully reflected at the end of the book, where Gary describes walking through a forest without light, without answers, without perspective, without a path. This forest feels like a black hole to him. He can’t resist it’s pull, time ceases to exist once he’s inside, but he also knows he has to cross the thick of the forest in order to move on. This, I think, is what Gary intended by the albumtitle.

Earlier in the book, Gary talks about how the atoms of someone, his basic buildings blocks, always keep existing. After death, these atoms simply take on a different form. I want to share this quote from the book where he talks about (and to) his father, because it’s a hopeful thought, but also because it sheds a different light on the albumtitle: “There is a future where the burned down forest of you regrew from your atoms, and although all the plants and trees are different now, there is at least life again.”

Now that we’re on the topic of atoms: what’s with all the astronomy and astrophysics stuff Gary? This book is quite heavy on metaphores and similes anyway, some very affecting, like: “Johnny and Nathan have no idea I’m harvesting their atoms. I’m following after them and vacuuming their sloughed off remainders and filing them away. I’ll build all this again. I’ll live all this once more.” Others fell a bit flat for me, like this one that made me actually laugh out loud: “That voice was screaming that day too, telling you not to leave. That voice though couldn’t achieve escape velocity because of the gravitational pull of my cowardice.”

Apart from all the heavy themes, this book offers some delightful anecdotes as well, like when Gary meets Dave Grohl on stage and afterwards says: “That doesn’t happen everyday.” He tells it better than I do, trust me - which brings me to my last point. If you have the chance, listen to the audiobook while reading, it truly enhances the experience.

Snow Patrol has been such an important part of my life (and of many other lives). This book made me love and appreciate their music even more. Much love and respect for Gary. Truly a treasure, both the man and the book.

[Ande · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If you don't know the place where you are from, how can you really know anywhere else?"

5.00 / 5.00

This book is Gary Lightbody's companion to Snow Patrol's 2024 album of the same name. Part memoir, part making of, and all heart, this small but incredibly mighty (and moving!) book is a piece of art. I can't stress enough how much I loved this story and how much you need to read it for yourself.

Not me over here crying like a g****** baby through this whole book! I knew it would be an amazing read because Lightbody is, at his core, a lyricist, and lyricists always make the best overall writers in my opinion. But... damn. I can't even describe to you how the love and grief and depression are just dripping off the pages. And how much I thought, "I shouldn't be enjoying reading about someone else's misery this much," but I just couldn't put it down.

Yet I had to put it down because the grief totally overwhelmed and I needed to take a break and let the emotions run out of me. Even still, it only took me a few hours (and a whole set of orange tabs!) to read this book. I see myself revisiting his words again, many times, in the future.

While this is a companion to the album, Lightbody takes caution to say it's not the definitive meaning behind the album, and he still wants listeners to draw their own meaning from the words and music. That being said, there's obviously only one choice for a musical companion to this book... which is the whole album. If I had to narrow it down to just one song on the album, "All" would be it. "I've not quite broken everything I've loved / That's why I hold you in museum gloves / And you can ask me anything you like / But just don't ask me why I'm like this" has reached out to my heart so many time in ways I cannot even begin to describe. "All I know / Is holding you is all I ever wanna know" has seen me through the work of trying to tear down the walls I've built around myself. Maybe one day it will see the walls reform around everyone I know. But all I can leave you with is "I guess this is a love song after all."

[Ruby Warhol · Rating 4 out of 5]

A memoir that puts the album into context and also provides a rare insight into Gary's life, as a famous front singer of Snow Patrol but also as a person, as well as his relationship to his hometown Bangor and how it feels to be back there.

I find it hard to judge a memoir because this is someone's personal experience. It was semi-fictional though because surely he didn't actually randomly fly through time across all his memories. There were some surreal psychedelic and existential-philosophical parts that just made me think "this man has definitely done drugs" (which he does admit to in the book). But the way he thinks deeply about everything and at the same time struggles to actually express (or even feel) his feelings was very relatable to me.

Themes
- male mental health and grief, feelings of guilt and self-blame, and responsibility to be strong for everyone else which then leads to numbness
- the struggle to express emotions in painful situations/arguments in romantic relationships
- insights into song writing and perfectionism, his music inspiration in the 90s, even includes some book recommendations!
- Gary's thoughts on time, spirituality, consciousness, and even quantum physics

Style
- raw and vulnerable, self-aware and direct/honest
- beautiful metaphors and imagery, unusual and inventive but spot-on
- very dreamy and "cinematic" language, the writing has an almost musical quality, it varies between dramatic and passionate and then cheeky and sarcastic again
- just the right mix of casual and poetic, peak Irish charm
- sometimes I didn't know which "you" he was talking to (the reader, his dad, or a romantic partner) because all of these were addressed in the 2nd person at some point, but I can also appreciate the emotional state leading to this stream-of-consciousness style as this is somewhat like a series of diary entries anyway. it didn't really hinder my reading comprehension

[Zac · Rating 4 out of 5]

This non-fiction book surprised me.
I've long had a short list of musicians whose lyrics I felt hinted at a greater story-telling depth, if only they chose to put their creative energies into a novel. Gary Lightbody (of Snow Patrol) was one of those lyricists. Words he penned made it into my wedding vows and his music was been a prominent companion of mine through half of my life. That said, I kind of abhor non-fiction accounts of the death of a parent. They tend to be so dull, overdone, so inwardly focused, so interested in examining their own grief, that they completely miss the universality of the experience every human has had to navigate. Not so with The Forest is the Path, where Lightbody intertwines examinations of his childhood in Northern Ireland with his work on his latest album (which shares its title with the book), and focuses them all around the most pivotal moment is his life thus far: the death of his father, Jack.
There is a surprising amount of humor in this work along with a kind of honesty you don't often see in this genre (where one should expect honesty is paramount). But more than anything, the writing is just lovely. His lyricism is apparent on every page, and even if he might get too caught up in his poetics from time to time (who among the writing community isn't?) for the most part this is a really engaging, tightly wound, but narratively expansive exploration of life, death, and everything in between. I sincerely hope we can see more literary writing from Gary Lightbody. Voices like his are sadly missing in a lot of modern works-- tragic, funny, frustrating, beautiful... his writing mirrors the human experience just as well as any of his songs.

[Isabel Fontes · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Forest is the Path" tells the story of Lightbody, who lost his father, Jack, to dementia in 2019. In this beautiful and poetic meditation on grief, love, life, and death, Lightbody reflects on his father's experience and the way he approached death. Through his storytelling, he feels an intimate connection to his father, which deepens their bond even in the face of loss.

In the memoir sections of this captivating book, the author delves into his intricate relationship with his father, bravely acknowledging his past insensitivities. Amid the often baffling bureaucracy of death, he cleverly navigates challenges, like keeping his shoes dry in the rain, all while infusing each moment with heartfelt humour and warmth. This delightful blend highlights his journey and invites readers to marvel at the extraordinary beauty of the natural world surrounding him.

Lightbody's portrait of his father—a vibrant and dynamic figure who truly shaped young Gary's world—is incredibly vivid and heartfelt. The love in every word shines through the pages, creating a beautiful connection. He courageously shares his struggles and the journey to overcome creative paralysis, ultimately inspiring us with the songs from the album.

This book offers a refreshing take on a tricky subject, making it approachable and insightful. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
I genuinely believe it should be a must-read for everyone—it's a cathartic resource that can support us all through our journeys with loss, no matter where we are.

[Lucy Dominguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

A veces las conexiones humanas son invisibles, intangibles y se dan de maneras extrañas, una de ellas son los músicos y sus fans. En este caso Snow Patrol escribe un disco nuevo y como fan sus letras y música te conmueven, te llevan a lugares íntimos y hermosos te hacen sentir que puedes conectar con sus experiencias a través de las tuyas y así te adueñas de cada canción, hasta que viene y escribe la razón y sentimiento detrás de la obra y ahora la entiendes diferente, pero entonces lees sus palabras y de nuevo te envuelve en ese juego de acompañamiento de experiencias, de empatía y profundiza en sus procesos creativos para hacerte más parte de su arte mientras libera sus demonios y tu acaricias a los tuyos que tal vez sean los mismos

[Kirstie Tyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't the kind of non-fiction I usually read, but I had to give this one a go as Snow Patrol is one of my favourite bands.

I already knew Gary had a way with words, but this book blew me away. It is such a genuine recount of the human experience told through beautifully crafted similies and metaphors. Topped off with Gary's amusing wit and gift for storytelling, I enjoyed every moment of reading this.

Such a beautifully profound read. I can only imagine how hard it must have been to put such feelings into words. All I can say is thanks for having the courage to share something so personal with anyone who reads this.

[Cosmina ☀]

honestly, i kind of had mixed feelings with this book. somehow i expected that gary would have as much dimension in his prose work as he does in his songs, but instead the book slightly felt like a stream of consciousness. i understand at the same time that this approach calls for a more authentic expression of his feelings, which is indeed fitting with the book's theme. but i still expected more.

still, i loved the ending so much.

and i feel sentimentally tied to this book. since i have really grown to resonate with gary and his song lyrics, i wanted to have the autographed version of this book. therefore, i gifted it to myself for my birthday. :-)

[Andre · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read.

The book is about loss, about regret, about memories, but above all, it’s about life. And it’s told with so much heart.

Gary tells the story of his father's death, what it did to him, how he dealt with it and what it meant for the writing of a new Snow Patrol album (which eventually became "The Forest is the Path").

The book will break your heart, but in a good way. Even though it’s about a difficult topic, it’ll leave you with a good feeling. It really is one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read.

[David Veitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s so hard to put into words the feelings going through my head whilst reading this. Aside from being a huge Snow Patrol fan for many years, Gary’s life story really resenated with me as I recently lost my own father. Things said bought me to tears, unheard of from a book. But told so viscerally and unfiltered by Gary. It’s a short read, but in a positive way there is no fillers. From start to finish this is a tour de force from a natural poet. Fantastically written, beautifully executed and heartbreakingly real. Thank you Gary for sharing this story!

[Ty Morton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely book. I was looking for a less than four hour nonfiction audiobook for a road trip and I came across this.

The raw honesty of Gary’s descriptions of his life growing up with his clearly beloved father — even if he never told him that — made this feel like a shared experience (even though at 56, I’m fortunate to have yet to lose a parent).

As he says in the introduction, he’s not here to wallow. Instead he just tells the story that so many of us know. It’s tender and kind, and his father would be proud of it.

[James Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fan of Snow Patrol (and Tired Pony) I was well inclined to read this "wee book" (as Lightbody himself calls it.) As someone who lost their father when I was 24, it resonated with me on many levels. It might help to have familiarity with the music, but it's not necessary. It stands on its own as a memoir of dealing with loss, working through remembrance, and emerging with a better understanding of one's self, one's family, one's craft, and one's path - past, present, and future. Also, I'm not crying, you're crying. Well done, lad.