Diptych Before Dying
Thomas McGonigle
April 22, 2025
ISBN 9798218628567 Paperback / 116 pages / $16.99

Following the death of his mother in the early 1970s, author Thomas McGonigle embarked on two journeys with his elderly father, one to Newfoundland and the other to Mexico City. In this poignant memoir, which he refers to as a "memory novel," McGonigle delves into his relationship with his father and the inevitable shift in the parent-child dynamic.

"Ever since Virgil pictured Aeneas carrying Anchises on his back, the trope of the father-son agon and journey has held a prominent place in the Western canon. Carrying forward the stylistic promise of the much admired Going to Patchogue, Thomas McGonigle has written a sorrowful and gripping memoir of both the journey and the agon."
  — James McCourt (author of Mawrdew Czgowchwz, Queer Street, etc.)

A translation of Diptych Before Dying appeared in 2020 in the Bulgarian literary magazine Syvremennik (Contemporary). This is the first publication of the original English version.