The Forest Is the Path
‘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 experience in songwriting — heartfelt, confessional treasures like Chasing Cars, Run and Open Your Eyes is beautifully rendered in narrative form.’ – Sunday Times, Pavel Barter -
'I read it in one go…and then I read it again.' – Lorraine Kelly -
'A beautiful piece of work.' – Ryan Tubridy, Virgin Radio -
'The book and the album – both are absolutely terrific.' – Brendan O'Connor -
‘I have both cried and laughed reading this book. It is beautiful.’ – Muireann O'Connell -
‘Ostensibly a book about grief and the death of his father, it detours through loneliness, creativity, mortality, the choices we make/don’t make and what to do with the time we have left. I read it during a time when three people who were too young died and it resonated a lot.’ – Sinéad Gleeson -
‘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 -
'This book is visceral and raw, travelling at breakneck speed through moments of grief, memories and artistic creation.' The Sunday Post (Scotland) -
'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 -
'Gary Lightbody's lyricism works just as beautifully on the page as it does in his music.' – Loverboy Magazine -
'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 -
'Absolutely beautiful.' Audrey Carville -
'Lightbody's propose is fluid and unflinchingly honest' – The Irish Times -