At first there was nothing extraordinary about Matt Talbot: he was just another heavy drinker and brawler on the bleak and desperate streets of late nineteenth-century Dublin. His life was full of despair, hard labour, and hard drinking. But as Eddie Doherty shows in this fast-paced, inspiring biography, Matt Talbot soon became extraordinary! It began when he took "the Pledge," a promise never to drink again-and kept it. Soon he was directing all his energy to becoming a saint. He still lived and worked where he had when he was a common drunkard, but now his inner life was filled with fervent prayer and heroic sacrifice. He grew in holiness to an extraordinary degree right up until his death in 1925. The Vatican is now considering Matt Talbot for canonization. You can find in his humble and holy life comforting and challenging evidence that holiness is possible today and that no matter how troubled your past has been you, too, can become a saint!