"If you were charmed by Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes . . . try All Souls, Michael Patrick MacDonald's guileless and powerful memoir."

--Time

"All souls is the written equivalent of an irish wake, where revelers dance and sing the dead person's praises. In that same style, the book leavens tragedy with dashes of humor but preserves the heartbreaking details."

--The New York Times Book Review

"Searing power . . . [macdonald's] swift, conversational style sweeps you into his anger and sorrow."

--USA Today

"A deeply american story . . . But what it shares with angela's ashes is a sense of inspiration. From terrible times came two good men, both gifted in storytelling."

--Chicago Sun-Times

Random Web Site, October, 2001

Michael Patrick MacDonald grew up in "the best place in the world"--the Old Colony projects of South Boston--where 85% of the residents collect welfare in an area with the highest concentration of impoverished whites in the U.S. In All Souls, MacDonald takes us deep into the secret heart of Southie. With radiant insight, he opens up a contradictory world, where residents are besieged by gangs and crime but refuse to admit any problems, remaining fiercely loyal to their community. MacDonald also introduces us to the unforgettable people who inhabit this proud neighborhood. We meet his mother, Ma MacDonald, an accordion-playing, spiked-heel-wearing, indomitable mother to all; Whitey Bulger, the lord of Southie, gangster and father figure, protector and punisher; and Michael's beloved siblings, nearly half of whom were lost forever to drugs, murder, or suicide. By turns explosive and touching, All Souls ultimately shares a powerful message of hope, renewal, and redemption.