Frank McCourt would seem to have more than his share of the luck of the Irish. His memoir, Angela's Ashes (Touchstone), shot onto the bestseller lists, sold more than 2.5 million copies, and won a Pulitzer Prize. The eagerly awaited sequel, 'Tis (Scribner), became an instant bestseller when it was published this fall. Now there's a new movie version of Angela's Ashes, starring Emily Watson as mother Angela and Robert Carlisle as father Malachy (Young Frank is played by a progression of six Irish boys, cast from 6,000 who auditioned.)

Yet behind Angela's Ashes is the painful true story of McCourt's childhood in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. 'Tis picks up the saga from his arrival in New York City at age 19 until, as a middle-aged man, he spread his mother Angela's ashes. McCourt's success is inextricably intertwined with his family history, and his story resonated with so many readers in part because it echoed that of their own immigrant ancestors.