Charles Foran Books in Order

Teaching in Beijing around the Tiananmen Square massacre, Foran observes the hopes and fears of students he befriends. Their experiences of repression, uncertainty, and possible escape shape this account of everyday life after the violence.

Two young strangers meet in Ireland: a Canadian drawn to fiddle music and questions surrounding his father's death, and a Vietnamese woman confronting her mother's loss. Their encounters explore family, displacement, memory, and artistic expression.

Foran examines Northern Ireland's Troubles through the McNallys, a Catholic family he first met in Belfast during the 1970s. Repeated visits reveal how political conflict and violence enter the ordinary life of their household.

Revisiting a school assignment written when he was ten, Foran expands the story of his childhood while retaining a boy's perspective. The memoir enters the thoughts and experiences of a child discovering his world.

Hong Kong communications executive Dominic Wilson is detained in the remote Asian country of Gyatso for unspecified crimes. Under apparently mild house arrest, he questions trust, guilt, and his own reasons for traveling there.

In famine-stricken Ireland in 1737, the ailing blind composer and harper Terence Carolan returns from a difficult pilgrimage. Accompanied by the loyal Owen Connor, he journeys home in a novel built around their enduring friendship.

These essays follow Foran through encounters with people and places shaped by political upheaval and cultural narratives. Vietnam's cinematic legacy, Shanghai's growth, and Bali's response to terrorism feature among his observations on travel and society.

Foran draws on family letters and archives to trace Mordecai Richler's life and the changing Canada around him. The biography examines the writer's personal relationships alongside the experiences and conflicts that shaped his literary career.

This biography follows Montreal Canadiens star Maurice Richard from his working-class background to sporting prominence. Foran considers how a reserved athlete devoted to scoring goals became a figure of broader significance for French Canadians.

Divorced Montrealer David travels to Beijing after Tiananmen with an opportunity to remake his troubled life. Multiple voices and shifting perspectives connect his past and present, exploring identity and the difficulty of understanding oneself.

Camping on a Hong Kong beach, fifteen-year-old Xixi encounters women who appear to have arrived from the sea. Posting a photograph of one online unleashes events she cannot control while family tensions and epidemic fears deepen.

Foran reflects on his relationship with his emotionally reserved father during the older man’s final decline. Caring for him and seeking words of reassurance lead the son to confront inherited wounds, family affection and his own approaching mortality.