Description

In The News from Dublin, a beautiful collection of short stories from the bestselling author of Brooklyn and Long Island, Colm Toibin delves into the days and nights of those living far from home: lives of great longing, at a great distance from past lives and past selves.

A woman in Galway hears of the death of her son in the First World War. An Irishman seeks anonymity in Barcelona, haunted by crimes he has committed. A man goes to Dublin from Enniscorthy to implore the Minister for Health for a special favour. A young woman is pregnant during the Spanish Civil War. An undocumented worker finds himself living an illegal life and must leave San Francisco, and his child, after thirty years in America. Three sisters who have been living in Argentina decide to return to Catalonia.

‘Toibin is the consummate cartographer of the private self, summoning with restrained acuity (and a delicious streak of sly humour) the thoughts his characters struggle to find words for’ – Clare Clark, Guardian

Publisher Review

Toibin is the consummate cartographer of the private self, summoning with restrained acuity (and a delicious streak of sly humour) the thoughts his characters struggle to find words for — Clare Clark * Guardian * There are few authors more attuned to human yearning * The i * Toibin is a subtle, intelligent and deeply felt writer * Guardian * A master of understated emotions * Mail on Sunday * Toibin [is] a master of his art . . . exquisite * Los Angeles Times * Toibin has conducted an exhilarating masterclass in extract the maximum effect from the minimum of prose, with the leanest and cleanest narrative line . . . His gifts are so remarkable — Robert McCrum * Independent * Toibin is a class act and his eye for the absurdities of Irish life keeps the pages turning * Mail on Sunday * A writer evidently at the height of his powers * Sunday Independent * Toibin writes prose of a heart-breaking beauty * Daily Telegraph * Colm Toibin is a writer of extraordinary emotional clarity . . . Toibin perfectly understands the instantaneous nature of the ideal short story; the sense that the pen is going straight into a major vein — Kate Saunders * Literary Review * It is in his emotional choreography that Toibin shows himself to be an exceptional writer * Sunday Telegraph * It’s truly remarkable that a writer of Toibin’s great felicity, immense seriousness and general large awareness – a writer so naturally gifted as a novelist – can deliver short stories of such subtle empathy and brilliance. He’s dazzling — Richard Ford