Outsider
A Memoir of Survival, Family Secrets and the Search to Belong
$53.65
- Paperback
352 pages
- Release Date
19 May 2026
Summary
‘A remarkable story, a real page-turner’ JOE DUFFY
‘Powerfully written … a gripping narrative’ FINTAN O’TOOLE
The remarkable story of one man’s journey from the edge of death to the heart of a hidden past.
Adopted at age three, Paul Cullen always felt like an outsider. After a near-fatal fall from Germany’s highest peak in 2017 left him broken - physically and emotionally - he faced a personal reckoning. As he lay injured on the mountain, he knew that if he survived, h…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781399755863 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1399755862 |
| Author: | Paul Cullen |
| Publisher: | Hachette Books Ireland |
| Imprint: | Hachette Books Ireland |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 352 |
| Release Date: | 19 May 2026 |
| Weight: | 432g |
| Dimensions: | 232mm x 152mm x 30mm |
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Critics Review
Written with extraordinary verbal and emotional precision, Outsider is a potent reminder that in Ireland the personal and the public are inextricably intertwined. In telling his own story of adoption, loss and discovery Paul Cullen also tells the inner history of a society in which a child like him could be labelled as illegitimate. While the truths of the past can never be fully revealed, the truthfulness of Cullen’s account shines through his gripping narrative * Fintan O’Toole *
Paul Cullen’s Outsider is a beautifully written story of gradual discovery about his origins before his adoption, particularly the crucial early years of his life, and the people who played the most important part in them. Having looked at all the evidence, he calmly and rationally concludes that his was a forced adoption, contrary to the findings of the deeply flawed Mother and Baby Homes report. This book is a very important contribution to the growing literature on Ireland’s unholy alliance between church and state to interfere in fundamental relationships with life-changing effects on those involved.
* Catriona Crowe *This true story reads like a thriller, with all the twists turns and ultimate redemption of a remarkable story, a real page turner * Joe Duffy *Moving … a painfully honest memoir * Irish Examiner *Moving and compelling * Irish Times *About The Author
Paul Cullen
Paul Cullen is a journalist and the author of three acclaimed non-fiction books. Born in London and raised in Dublin, he studied engineering at Trinity College Dublin before spending five years in Switzerland. On returning to Ireland, he trained in journalism at Dublin City University and joined The Irish Times in 1993, where he reported on health, politics, consumer affairs, international development, and education over a distinguished three-decade career.
He is the author of the best-selling With a Little Help from My Friends, which investigated corruption uncovered by the planning tribunal, and has won numerous awards for his work, including Irish News Journalist of the Year in 2023. Outsider: A Memoir of Survival, Family Secrets and the Search to Belong, was published by Hachette Ireland in February 2026, and will be followed in October the same year by his groundbreaking expose of the Irish national children’s hospital scandal, Billion Dollar Baby.
Paul Cullen lives in Dublin with his wife and four children.
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