Synopses & Reviews
Each of the nine stories in this beautifully written, intensely intimate collection centers on a transformative moment that alters the delicate balance of power between mother and son, or changes the way they perceive one another. With exquisite grace and eloquence, Tóibín writes of men and women bound by convention, by unspoken emotions, by the stronghold of the past. Many are trapped in lives they would not choose again, if they ever chose at all.
A man buries his mother and converts his grief to desire in one night. A famous singer captivates an audience, yet cannot beguile her own estranged son. And in "A Long Winter," Colm Tóibín's finest piece of fiction to date, a young man searches for his mother in the snow-covered mountains where she has sought escape from the husband who controls and confines her.
Winner of numerous awards for his fifth novel, The Master including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Tóibín brings to this stunning first collection an acute understanding of human frailty and longing. These are haunting, profoundly moving stories by a writer who is himself a master.
Review
"Characterization, dialogue, controlled narrative and scenic description are expertly blended throughout, often to stunning emotional effect." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
A sequence of nine short works by the award-winning author of The Master explores the intricate bonds between mothers and sons as reflected at pivotal junctures that shift the way each sees and understands the other, from a famous singer's performance for an audience that includes her son to a son's search for his oppressed mother through snow-covered mountains. 35,000 first printing.
About the Author
Colm Toibin is the award-winning author of five novels: The South, The Heather Blazing, The Story of the Night, The Blackwater Lightship, and The Master, winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and a finalist for the Man Booker Prize. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
The Use of Reason
A Song
The Name of the Game
Famous Blue Raincoat
A Priest in the Family
A Journey
Three Friends
A Summer Job
A Long Winter
One Minus One