Summary of Angela’s Ashes
In his memoir “Angela’s Ashes”, Frank McCourt recounts his impoverished childhood, first in Brooklyn, USA, but mostly in Limerick, Ireland, during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Second World War.
Reasons to read Angela’s Ashes
“Angela’s Ashes” presents a dark yet tender and humorous portrayal of life in Limerick during the 1930s and 1940s, highlighting the alcoholism, unemployment, hunger, and infant mortality that shaped the author’s poverty-stricken youth. Frank McCourt, an Irish-American writer, won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the 1996 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography for “Angela’s Ashes”. The book was adapted into a film of the same name in 1999. McCourt subsequently published the sequels “’Tis” and “Teacher Man”, which explore his later life in New York.
Setting: Limerick (Ireland) & Brooklyn (USA)
Original title: Angela’s Ashes
Year of publication: 1996
Nr of pages: 368
