James Joyce (1882- 1941) is hailed as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Rejecting his homeland and its religion as a young man, Joyce went on to reinvent the Dublin of his youth in fiction. His masterpiece, Ulysses - once banned in Britain and the United States - redefined the modern novel and has become a canonical classic, while Finnegans Wake, written as his eyesight deteriorated, cemented Joyce's legacy as one of the founding figures of modernist literature.

In this lucid and compelling biography, Ian Pindar vividly explores crucial events in Joyce's life, from his self-imposed exile to his creative triumphs. Revealing how Joyce's work carefully blends the abstract and the mundane, Joyce is a timeless study of a man who revolutionised the literary landscape and captured the great human comedy of which we are all part.