Pete McCarthy established one cardinal rule of travel in his bestselling debut McCarthy's Bar : "Never pass a bar with your name on it." In this equally wry and insightful follow-up, Pete's characteristic good humor, curiosity, and thirst for adventure take him on a fantastic jaunt around the world in search of his Irish roots -- from Morocco, where he tracks down the unlikely chief of the McCarthy clan, to Rocky Sullivan's in New York, where he braves a crowd of stratospherically drunken Scotsmen in the midst of their St. Patrick's Day celebrations -- just before he is engulfed by a sea of green plastic bowler hats on Fifth Avenue. After clocking thousands of miles and landing in more than a few exotic locations, he finally reaches his coveted destination: a remote and sparsely populated Alaskan town (named McCarthy, of course) where the eighteen townspeople are far outnumbered by the bears. Risking life, limb, and liberty in an almost heroic effort to trace his own lineage, he also happens to discover the peculiar and fascinating history of McCarthys everywhere while managing to down a few good pints along the way. Packed with unexpected detours and dozens of hilarious moments, The Road to McCarthy is a quixotic and anything but typical Irish odyssey that confirms Pete McCarthy's status as one of the funniest and most incisive authors writing today. McCarthy is one very funny man, and this is one very funny book. We last heard from him in the equally hilarious McCarthy's Bar (2001), in which he was searching for his Irish roots in Ireland. The journey continues, but now the indefatigable Anglo-Irishman expands his horizons to jaunt about the globe, from unlikely Tangier to that traditional Irish bastion, New York. As his readers well know, McCarthy will go anywhere and everywhere as long as a pint (or two) in a cozy pub awaits at journey's end. He risks life and limb, such as when he faces, with utmost courage, a rabid crowd of drunken Scots Catholic soccer fans, come from Glasgow to celebrate Paddy's Day in Manhattan. Betimes he stays closer to home, at an Ireland versus England rugby match in Dublin, for instance, but really, how can he resist visiting Tasmania, Montserrat, Butte (Montana), and a tiny (population 18) Alaskan town that somehow bears his name? Infectiously funny. June Sawyers Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved “Engaging… [McCarthy’s] curiosity is infectious and there’s plenty to amuse.” (St Petersburg Times) “Hilarious...If McCarthy isn’t telling a fabulous yarn himself, he’s quoting someone who is.” (Washington Post) “McCarthy is stitch. Move over, Bill Bryson. You’ve finally met your match.” (Chicago Tribune) “An entertaining romp [and] a meditation on Ireland today.” (Conde Nast Traveler) “Highly engaging…a very funny book.” (Los Angeles Times Book Review) “Humorous and insightful…a delightful memoir.” (Library Journal) “A lively, lusty quest. McCarthy travels like a Renaissance explorer with a film director’s lens.” (Publishers Weekly) “The funniest book I’ve read this year.” (The Independent (UK)) “A funny and believable travelogue.” (London Times) “An engaging, evocative book.” (Mail on Sunday) “A hugely enjoyable book, heartfelt, self-aware and very funny ...an intelligent exploration of what it means to be Irish.” (Kilkenny People) “McCarthy is a worthy addition to the ranks of P.J. O’Rourke, Bill Bryson and Peter Mayle.” (Publishers Weekly) “Hilarious, sentimental, surprising and revealing.” (Dallas Morning News) “Fans of Bill Bryson will enjoy reading McCarthy’s droll narrative of his rediscovery of his family’s roots in Ireland.”- (Library Journal) “Unfailingly sharp, good-humored and offbeat: sure to please Celtophiles of every greenish hue.” (Kirkus Reviews) “With self-deprecating wit and a sly sense of the absurd, [McCarthy] makes even the most mundane experience entertaining.” (Booklist) “A volume [that] cannot fail to impress even the most world-weary traveller.” (Books Magazine) “A travelogue that’s as hilariously gratifying as it is entertaining.” (Entertainment Weekly) Pete McCarthy was born to an Irish mother and an English father. He is a hugely popular British television personality and the author of the critically acclaimed international bestseller McCarthy's Bar . He is also a recent winner of the British Book Awards Newcomer of the Year Award and the Irish Post Award for Literature.