Hanging with the Elephant

‘A compelling memoir. Absorbing and graced with a deceptive lightness of touch, [Hanging with the Elephant] is clever and brilliantly pieced together. Harding writes like an angel’ Sunday Times

From the No.1 bestselling author of Staring at Lakes, Talking to Strangers and On Tuesdays I’m A Buddhist

‘In public or on stage, it’s different. I’m fine. I have no bother talking to three hundred people, and sharing my feelings. But when I’m in a room on a one-to-one basis, I get lost. I can never find the right word. Except for that phrase – hold me.‘
Michael Harding’s wife has departed for a six-week trip, and he has been left alone in their home in Leitrim. Faced with the realities of caring for himself for the first time since his illness two years before, Harding endeavours to tame the ‘elephant’ – an Asian metaphor for the unruly mind. As he does, he finds himself finally coming to terms with the death of his mother – a loss that has changed him more than he knows.
Funny, searingly honest and profound, Hanging with the Elephant pulls back the curtain and reveals what it is really like to be alive.

Author Biography

Michael Harding is an author and playwright. A recipient of the Stewart Parker Award for theatre, a Hennessy Award for Short Stories and a Bank of Ireland/RTÉ award for Excellence in the Arts in 1990, he has written numerous plays for the Abbey Theatre and was writer in association with the National Theatre in 1993.

His novels include Bird in the Snow, The Trouble with Sarah Gullion and Priest. He is also the author of several bestselling memoirs including Staring at Lakes (winner of the Bord Gáis Energy Book of the Year award), Hanging with the Elephant, Talking to Strangers, On Tuesdays I’m a Buddhist, Chest Pain and What is Beautiful in the Sky.

He is a member of Aosdána, a columnist for over fifteen years with The Irish Times and his podcasts are available on the Patreon platform.