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by Michael Harding

In late 2018, Michael Harding was in a hotel room in Blanchardstown experiencing severe pains in his chest. He eventually phoned an ambulance and was admitted to hospital, suffering from an acute heart attack. Here, in Chest Pain, he looks at the months before the heart attack when he kept the signs of failing health from his beloved and instead retreated into solitude -- and with his own inimitable style and humour takes us with him through the months after a stent had been inserted in his heart, where he travels the roads of Donegal in a camper van in a journey back to the beloved, and to himself.Chest Pain is a thought-provoking, spell-binding memoir about togetherness and what it means to be alive.

320 pages, Paperback

Published September 5, 2019

Reviews

[Brid Drake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Michael Harding’s story telling style. Despite the core issue of what it’s like to have a heart attack, this book has a gentle meandering to a peaceful conclusion.

[Alec Mcallister · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone looking at the cover and expecting a jaunty travelogue from a man in a campervan in recovery after a near death experience, is in the wrong place. (Although Harding should definitely write that book too. ) This is more about the inner journey leading up to that heart attack as Harding ignoring all the warning signs from a creaking heart attempts to salve the body’s aches with spiritual healing. In that quest he becomes increasingly isolated and distances himself from all the very things that sustain and nurture a life - in Harding’s case his “beloved” and his beautiful home which they have built together over Lough Allen.
If that sounds very dull and worthy, it isn’t. Yes it is a serious book, but Harding is an excellent writer with a keen sense of the ridiculous and always knows when to puncture any sense of self importance or naval gazing. At times the book breaks off into surreal conversations with the cat or random strangers he has met. Harding is one of the few writers who can genuinely make you snort with laughter. All in all, a gorgeous book that mightn’t necessarily suit everyone, but I enjoyed it immensely.