Staring at Lakes cover art

Staring at Lakes

A Memoir of Love, Melancholy and Magical Thinking

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Staring at Lakes

By: Michael Harding
Narrated by: Michael Harding
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About this listen

Throughout his life, Michael Harding has lived with a sense of emptiness - through faith, marriage, fatherhood and his career as a writer, a pervading sense of darkness and unease remained. When he was 58, he became physically ill and found himself in the grip of a deep melancholy.

Here, in this beautifully written memoir, he talks with openness and honesty about his journey: leaving the priesthood when he was in his 30s, settling in Leitrim with his artist wife, the depression that eventually overwhelmed him and how, ultimately, he found a way out of the dark by accepting the fragility of love and the importance of now.

Staring at Lakes was a number-one best seller in Michael's native Ireland and won three BGE Irish book awards in 2013, including Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

©2013 Michael Harding (P)2015 Hachette
Mental Health Mood Disorders Personal Development Psychology & Mental Health

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Critic reviews

"It's rare for a memoir to demand such intense emotional involvement and rarer still for it to be so fully rewarded." (Sunday Times)
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Highly recommended. I believe than I am a better person for having read this book. Thank you Michael.

Searingly honest.

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I throughly enjoyed every second of this book. Magical narration, I felt I was on the journey too.

Wonderful

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I’ve read this book was sold when i noticed that Michael was narrating. It’s a great story and the reading suits it so well. Get him on to read more of his own stories and others!!

MORE MICHAEL HARDING PLEASE

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I thought this Memoir was beautifully told it was very deep and moving and really helps the reader to appreciate life and how precious that is I would really recommend this book

wonderfully inspiring

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I could listen to Michael all day! He reads with such passion and warmth. I really got lost in the moment with him. I'd highly recommend a read x

so read and heartwarming

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