All Souls is the written equivalent of an Irish wake, where revelers dance and sing the dead persons praises. In that same style, the book leavens tragedy with dashes of humor but preserves the heartbreaking details.--The New York Times Book Review n nA 25th anniversary edition of the National Bestselling memoir, with a new afterword from Michael Patrick MacDonald, takes us deep into the South Boston housing projects during one of the citys most tumultuous times in history and tells the story of his family struggling the overcome the poverty, crime, addiction, and incarceration that overtook the neighborhood. nA breakaway bestseller since its first printing, All Souls takes us deep into Michael Patrick MacDonalds Southie, the proudly insular neighborhood with the highest concentration of white poverty in America. n nRocked by Whitey Bulgers crime schemes and busing riots, MacDonalds Southie is populated by sharply hewn characters. We meet Ma, Michaels mini-skirted, accordian-playing, single mother who endures the deaths of four of her eleven children. And there are Michaels older siblings Davey, sweet artist-dreamer; Kevin, child genius of scam; and Frankie, Golden Gloves boxer and neighborhood hero whose lives are high-wire acts played out in a world of poverty and pride. n nNearly suffocated by his grief and his communitys code of silence, MacDonald tells his family story here with gritty but moving honesty. All Souls is heartbreaking testimony to lives lost too early, and the story of how a place so filled with pain could still be the best place in the world.n