Pat Conroy memoir about his father, ‘The Death of Santini,’ coming out in October

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Pat Conroy fans will finally get the real story about his father, the man who inspired the novel “The Great Santini.”

Doubleday announced Monday that the author has a memoir coming out in October, “The Death of Santini.”

The publisher is calling the book “a heart-wrenching account” of Conroy’s father, the late Donald Conroy, a Marine Corps fighter pilot whom his son has depicted as cruel and abusive.

The two Conroys eventually became closer, and the memoir will demonstrate how love can “conquer even the meanest of men,” according to Doubleday. Donald Conroy, whose fictionalized character was played by Robert Duvall in the film adaptation, died in 1998.

“The Death of Santini” was first announced in 2009 and has long been anticipated by Conroy readers.