Description

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize

Helen’s beloved brother Declan is dying. Now, she must join her mother and grandmother in a crumbling old house by the sea, three generations calling an uneasy truce after years of strife, to be by his side. Together with Declan’s friends, who know more about him than any family, they must all deal with the past and come to terms with each other.

‘It is in his emotional choreography that Toibin shows himself to be an exceptional writer’ The Sunday Telegraph

‘The most astonishing piece of writing, lyrical in its emotion and spare in its construction . . . Toibin has crafted an unmissable read’ The Sunday Herald

Publisher Review

This is the most astonishing piece of writing, lyrical in its emotion and spare in its construction . . . Toibin has crafted an unmissable read. * Sunday Herald * It is in his emotional choreography that Toibin shows himself to be an exceptional writer. Helen is estranged from both her mother and grandmother . . . Toibin helps them make peace – and he does it beautifully. * Sunday Telegraph * He writes in spare, powerful prose and he is truly perceptive about family relationships which, at times, makes reading his stories incredibly painful. But this is a beautiful novel. * Belfast News * We shall be reading and living with The Blackwater Lightship in twenty years. * Independent on Sunday *