This amazing memoir of the youngest McCourt begins between the borders of Canada and the United States. Because of a technical hitch in immigration law, Alphie, an Irishman in town to play a rugby match with his mates, finds himself shanghaied in no man's land. This is not the first time, or the last, Alphie will be on unsteady ground.

Limerick, Ireland is where Alphie McCourt was born. The departure of his father and the misery he leaves behind has far-reaching effects on the family. Alphie’s loneliness grows deeper and wider as each of his older brothers (Frank, Malachy and Michael) leave for America. In the end, only he and his mother are left. After Confession, Communion and Confirmation, Alphie becomes a “Soldier in Christ.” Piping, hurling, Gaelic football and rugby football, plus an early introduction to pint of stout, all bring him to the point of departure. The year is 1959; it is time to leave for New York.

Alphie's adolescence in New York is marked by aimlessness, shiftlessness and drinking far too much; he stays up all night and sleeps half the day. He works in the bar and restaurant business, which is a great escape as there is plenty of camaraderie and a drinking buddy is always easy to find. An Irish law student, Jim Molloy suggests that Alphie return to Ireland and study law. For three years, he tries his luck at University College, Dublin. His failure is due, partly to his lack of connections and partly to his own indolence. After a brief return to New York, Alphie leaves for California, where he discovers marijuana, a forbidden relationship with a woman, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Alphie eventually returns to his immigrant roots in New York City. He reencounters the beautiful Lynn, an Upper East Side woman whom he never forgot. They move to the Upper West Side and in 1975, enlist a priest and rabbi for a raucous wedding. One year later, their daughter Allison is born; her difficulties will not be obvious for some years. Success followed by hardship in business ventures color several of the following years. Then, one night at the beginning of the First Gulf War, Alphie has an epiphany. On Route 80 in New Jersey, drunk, full of despair and driving through the snow, Alphie comes to his senses, pulls over, and goes to sleep. That will be his last night of drinking.

He now rises in the morning, at time when he used to go to bed. With dawn still lingering, he monitors the Empire State Building, in all its moods and colors. He has finally landed on firm ground. He is home.

“Alphie is the youngest of the four McCourt brothers and the third—after Frank and Malachy—to pen a memoir about his life in Ireland and the U.S. Being a decade younger than Frank, we see the Limerick of the early 1950s is still a hard life for the McCourts, but with the brothers leaving for America—and being drafted into the U.S. Army—there is now money coming into the household. Still it is the same bleak landscape that Frank wrote about in Angela’s Ashes, full of class-based bias and still under the thumb Holy Mother Church. This book is a nomadic adventure worthy of Ulysses. We see Alphie coming to America, going to Canada, finally reentering the U.S. and going into the Army as, of all things, a No. 10 can food inspector. After jobs in bars and journeys to Dublin and California, Alphie finally settles in New York, finds a wife and has a child. McCourt always finds irony in life and his tales of the bar and restaurant business and its clientele are laugh-out-loud funny. Sensitive, lyrical, funny, stubborn, impetuous, McCourt writes with a steady hand, a joyful heart, and an Irishman’s sense of life’s absurdities.” – Publishers Weekly

"The talent of writing seems to be genetic. A Long Stone's Throw visits another memoir of the McCourt family, the baby of the family, Alphie. Growing up in a rough family during a rough time, Alphie had an eventful life like his brothers. A whirlwind of a life brought him across the Atlantic and seemed to not have him have much rest, as he found himself in Canada, California, before finally finding stability in New York City. Another perspective of the McCourt family, A Long Stone's Throw is well worth the read." - Midwest Book Review

“When the history of Ireland is written––the story of the ordinary and the extraordinary combined––the readers will thank the heavens for what the McCourt family have brought us. A Long Stone's Throw is humble, humorous and honest. Alphie McCourt moves fluidly through time and geography, to bring us a brand new story, one that is necessary and real, one filled with tenderness and redemption." – Colum McCann, author Zoli and Dancer

“This book stands utterly and uniquely on its own. Beautifully written, with gentle wit, penetrating honesty and forgiving insight, it is a moving and poetic account of one man's long day's journey into light. I was entranced from first page to last. You will be too.”
– Peter Quinn, author Banished Children of Eve, Hour of the Cat and Looking for Jimmy

"Fans of Angela's Ashes will be fascinated by this alternate account of the McCourt family history. Alphie McCourt is a gentle, charming, philosophical narrator."
– Brooke Allen, literary critic and author The Moral Minority

"Life can be terrifying—or it can be amusing. Alphie McCourt has captured the rhythm of life as he has lived it, first in Limerick City, then in New York City. Nothing escapes his attention, be it the little mouse scraping among the poor McCourts for food in Ireland, the inanity of being a #10 can food inspector in the U.S. Army, the workings of New York’s saloon societies, or the search for the ultimate mortal sin—sex. A Long Stone’s Throw is marvelously and sensitively written. It will make you laugh, cry and thank God you were lucky enough to find this book. Alphie McCourt is a uniquely talented memoirist."
– Dermot McEvoy, author of Our Lady of Greenwich Village and Terrible Angel

"In this time of anxiety about immigration, here is evidence of how essential to our sanity and our sense of the absurd, is a frequent transfusion of Ireland. This book is like an evening with a wonderful storyteller who describes scenes and people and events so vividly, and with such sly wit, that he transports you along with him on his journey. Here is a great immigrant tale, told with such charming modesty that it goes down like a smooth draught of ale.” – Samuel Gibbon, Emmy-winning producer of Sesame Street and The Electric Company

“The world, courtesy of Alphie McCourt’s fertile prism of seems once again full of the promise of tomorrow. A memoir, yes, but so wickedly sly and witty––no self-pity here––in the talented hands of Mr. McCourt, the very word memoir seems inadequate.”
– John Mulholland, writer/director of The True Gen

"My brother Alphie is a writer, and always has been, but it's public now. He has written a memoir where his unique voice, great style and literary talents shine through. It's a funny, sometimes sad saga, but you will be delighted you read it."
- Malachy McCourt, author of Singing My Him Song and A Monk Swimming