Description
A collection of nine stories focusing on a moment in which an unspoken balance shifts; in which a mother and son do battle, or experience a sudden crisis, thus leaving their conception of who they are subtly or seriously altered.
Colm Tóibín is a writer of extraordinary emotional clarity. Each of the nine stories is a snapshot of a point of crisis . . . Tóibín perfectly understands the instantaneous nature of the ideal short story; the sense that the pen is going straight into a major vein. These are beautiful stories, beautifully crafted.
The last story in this excellent collection is a superbly powerful tale of betrayal and desertion. Quintessential Tóibín.
Moving . . . beautifully captured moments of longing and loss . . . Tóibín is a subtle, intelligent and deeply felt writer.
By turns surprising and illuminating, always beautifully written, Mothers and Sons places Tóibín in the front rank of modern Irish fiction . . . It may not be going too far to suggest Irish fiction has found its first Master of the new century.
It’s truly remarkable that a writer of Tóibín’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.
Tóibín is a master of understated emotions. From wintry landscapes, bereft of human life, to crowded pubs filled with musicians, every scene has the ring of truth.
All the stories share a miraculous density. Short but weighty, they contain whole lives.
Subtly and exquisitely written, the language never forced but utterly rooted in real worlds. Each story is haunting and memorable.
Some of the most accomplished and nuanced soundings contemporary fiction has to offer.
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 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 Booker Prize and the 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.