Synopses & Reviews
The Heather Blazing is a narrative of the life of Eamon Redmond, a reserved but highly respected Dublin judge whose judgements are often controversial and often land him in trouble with his grown son and daughter, with whom his relationship has always been distant. When Redmond's wife Carmel has a stroke and becomes a semi-invalid, he reevaluates his life, including his connections with his family and in particular his feelings for his long-dead father, a determinedly republican teacher and supporter of the Fianna Fail party founded by Eamon de Valera (who makes a cameo appearance). Using flashbacks to Redmond's childhood alternating with episodes from the present, Toibin delineates a complex human being, and illuminates recent Irish history in the process.
Review
"The Heather Blazing is as contemporary as today's Irish Times, and its author writes with the vision of an enlightened Republic of Ireland still being struggled toward in the world outside fiction." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"This lovely, understated novel proceeds with stately grace." Alice McDermott, The Washington Post Book World
Review
"Beautifully written... Toibin weaves past and present together in a way designed to extract maximum resonance....One of the book's surprises is its subtle humor, its awareness of small ironies." Voice Literary Supplement
Review
"A stunning Irish novel, which seems to derive its clear and affecting style in part from the staunch personality of its protagonist... and in part from the chilly beauty of the southeast coast of Ireland." The New Yorker
Review
"A moving tale... The more one thinks about this clear-headed yet intense book, the stronger the impression it leaves." Los Angeles Times Book Review
Review
"The Heather Blazing makes a breathtaking leap into the realm of Joyce's Dubliners." Mirabella
Review
"There are... a handful of writers who manage to combine our time's awareness of the boot tracks families leave on their members' psyches with a direct and uncomplicated experience of those wounded lives. They are masters, and there are precious few of them.... To nominate someone for that august company, Colm Toibin seems and unavoidable candidate." Goffrey Stokes, The Boston Globe