The Forest Is the Path

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.

Review

‘[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

About the Author

Gary Lightbody is an artist, writer and lead singer of Snow Patrol. This is his first book.