South

Colm Tóibín was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of several novels, including Brooklyn, the 2009 Costa Novel of the Year, The Master, which was shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize and winner of the LA Times Book Prize and the IMPAC Book Award, and The Blackwater Lightship, which was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize and the 2001 IMPAC Award. His non-fiction includes Bad Blood, Homage to Barcelona, The Sign of the Cross and Love in a Dark Time. His work has been translated into seventeen languages. He lives in Dublin.

A broad and beautifully worked canvas ... An imaginative, deeply felt and evocative tale Sunday Times A daring, imaginative feat; the world it conjures is at once familiar and strange, and strangely moving. A splendid first novel -- John Banville This is a strong and moving work of fiction about the hard truths of changing one's life. Colm Toibin, like his characters, never says too much and never lets us grow too comfortable. A grand achievement -- Don DeLillo Colm Toibin writes prose of a heartbreaking beauty -- Hilary Mantel Clever, evocative and intelligent Irish Times The story is told with spare, simple elegance London Review of Books