Showing results by author "Colm Toibin" in All Categories

When the Great War breaks out in 1914 Thomas Mann, like so many of his fellow countrymen, is fired up with patriotism. He imagines the Germany of great literature and music, that had drawn him away from the stifling, conservative town of his childhood, might be a source of pride once again. But his flawed vision will form the beginning of a dark and complex relationship with his homeland, and see the start of great conflict within his own brilliant and troubled family.

At the centre of Colm Tóibín's internationally celebrated novel is Eilis Lacey, one among many of her generation who has come of age in 1950s Ireland but cannot find work at home. When she receives a job offer in America, it is clear to everyone that she must go. Leaving her family and country behind, Eilis heads for unfamiliar Brooklyn, and to a crowded boarding house where the landlady's intense scrutiny and the small jealousies of her fellow residents only deepen her isolation.

Set in Ireland in the 1990s, Colm Tóibín's The Blackwater Lightship tells the story of the Devereux family. Dora Devereux, her daughter Lily and her granddaughter Helen have come together after years of strife and reached an uneasy truce. Helen’s adored brother, Declan, is dying. Two friends join him and the women in a crumbling old house by the sea, where the six of them, from different generations and with different beliefs, must listen to and come to terms with one another.

Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber and one of four Italian American brothers, all of whom live in neighboring houses on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island, with their wives and children and Tony’s parents, a huge extended family that lives and works, eats and plays together. It is the spring of 1976 and Eilis, now in her forties with two teenage children, has no one to rely on in this still-new country. Though her ties to Ireland remain stronger than those that hold her to her new land and home, she has not returned in decades.

A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, The Sun Also Rises introduces two of Hemingway’s most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. In his first great literary masterpiece, Hemingway portrays an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions.

Colm Tóibín's The Heather Blazing details the life of Eamon Redmond, a judge in Ireland's high court, a man remote from his wife, his son and daughter and, at least outwardly, his own childhood. The life he has built for himself, between his work in Dublin and his family's retreat by the sea at Cush, is distinguished by order and by achievement. When, like his beloved coastline, it begins to slip away, he is pulled sharply into the present and finds himself revisiting his past.

As a part of the launch of the new A-List series, a curated selection of titles from Anansi's backlist featuring handsome new cover illustrations and introductions by well-known Canadian writers, comes Rawi Hage's De Niro's Game, with a new introduction. There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. In Rawi Hage's unforgettable novel, winner of the 2008 IMPAC Prize, this famous quote by Camus becomes a touchstone for two young men caught in Lebanon's civil war.

Une œuvre couronnée par le prix Nobel de littérature, une vie familiale mouvementée et souvent dramatique, et la traversée de toutes les tragédies politiques de la première moitié du siècle - voilà comment on pourrait résumer la vie de Thomas Mann. Colm Tóibín a choisi de nous la raconter de l'intérieur et dans toute sa dimension romanesque. Cette existence est peuplée d'autres figures inoubliables. Au tout premier plan, son épouse, la fascinante Katia Pringsheim.

Antigone stood defiant in the face of tyranny. Best-selling and award winning author Colm Tóibín wrote this new dramatisation of the Greek tragedy especially to be performed by Irish actor Lisa Dwan. Pale Sister gives voice to Antigone’s sister, Ismene, who recounts her sister’s defiance of the king as pressures mount on her to act to vindicate her sister, or even follow her example. Pale Sister tells Antigone’s story through Ismene: the quiet person in the corner, bearing witness to everything.

Colm Tóibín, beloved Irish author of The Testament of Mary and Brooklyn (now being adapted for a film starring Saoirse Ronan), in conversation about his newest novel, Nora Webster, an unforgettable portrait of an inimitable woman, her family, and the small Irish town that confines her. With Siri Hustvedt ( The Blazing World).

From bestselling and Booker-nominated author Colm Tóibín comes a beautiful collection of essays ranging from personal memoir to brilliantly acute writing on religion, literature and politics.

The Irish writers and good friends discuss their newest novels (each of which is set in New York City and was chosen by Amazon as one of the Top 4 Books of 2009) with each other and the audience. Michael Cerveris performs excerpts from both authors. A book signing follows.

Award-winning author Colm Tóibín turns his incisive gaze to three of the world's greatest writers, Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, and James Joyce, and their earliest influences: their fathers. In Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know, Colm Tóibín illuminates not only the complex relationships between three of the greatest writers in the English language and their fathers, but also illustrates the surprising ways they surface in their work.

Irland i 50'erne: Den unge pige Eilis bor sammen med sin mor og søster i en lille by, hvor der er meget langt til resten af verden. Faren er død, og pengene er små. Storesøsteren arbejder hårdt om dagen og spiller golf om aftenen. Her møder Eilis en praest, som er hjemme på besøg fra New York, og som lover at skaffe Eilis et job "over there". Efter en hård overfart til Amerika møder den lidt sky og tilbageholdende pige den nye verden, Brooklyn og New York. I Brooklyn flytter Eilis ind i et pensionat for irske piger og begynder at arbejde bag disken i en paen tøjforretning.

During the winter solstice, on the shortest day and longest night of the year, the ancient burial chamber at Newgrange is empowered. Its mystifying source is a haunting tale told by locals. Professor O’Kelly believes an archaeologist’s job is to make known only what can be proved. He is undeterred by ghost stories, idle speculation, and caution. Much to the chagrin of the living souls in County Meath. As well as those entombed in the sacred darkness of Newgrange itself. They’re determined to protect the secret of the light, guarded for more than 5,000 years.

Ein Aufbruch ins Unbekannte: Die junge Irin Eilis Lacey wandert um 1950 nach Amerika aus, um in Brooklyn eine neue Arbeit zu finden. Doch sie passt sich nur langsam an das neue Leben an, schließt nicht leicht Freundschaft. Ganz allmählich gewinnt sie Selbstvertrauen und merkt, dass sie zu einer selbständigen, erwachsenen Person geworden ist. Das macht ihr die Entscheidung zwischen Irland und Amerika, zwischen dem einen und dem anderen Mann, nicht leichter.

This was the night train to Barcelona, some hours before the dawn. This was 1950, late September. I had left my husband. I had left my home. Katherine Proctor has dared to leave her family in Ireland and reach out for a new life. Determined to become an artist, she flees to Spain, where she meets Miguel, a passionate man who has fought for his own freedoms. They retreat to the quiet intensity of the mountains and begin to build a life together.

Colm Tóibín's Mothers and Sons is a sensitive and beautifully written meditation on the dramas surrounding this most elemental of relationships. Psychologically intricate and emotionally incisive, each finely wrought story teases out the delicate and difficult strands woven between mothers and sons. This is an acute, masterful and moving collection that confirms Tóibín as a great prose stylist of our time.

Acclaimed Irish novelist Colm Tóibín first read James Baldwin just after turning eighteen. He had completed his first year at an Irish university and was struggling to free himself from a religious upbringing. Inspired by the novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, Tóibín found a writer who would be a lifelong companion and exemplar.

Wealthy and devout, Michael and Julia Glynn are the envy of their neighbors and the model Irish Catholic couple, bearing Michael's increasingly painful and crippling arthritis with stoicism. In hope of a miracle, their priest suggests a family pilgrimage to Lourdes. Yet these pious holiday plans are thrown into doubt when anonymous, obscene letters begin to arrive, full of terrible accusations.