Author(s): Colm Tóibín [Toibin]

Novel | LGBTQI+ | Ireland

Set in Ireland in the 1990s, Colm Toibin'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 and come to terms with one another.

Review: This is the most astonishing piece of writing, lyrical in its emotion and spare in its construction . . . Toibin has crafted an unmissable read. * Sunday Herald *
It is in his emotional choreography that Toibin shows himself to be an exceptional writer. Helen is estranged from both her mother and grandmother . . . Toibin helps them make peace - and he does it beautifully. * Sunday Telegraph *
He writes in spare, powerful prose and he is truly perceptive about family relationships which, at times, makes reading his stories incredibly painful. But this is a beautiful novel. * Belfast News *
We shall be reading and living with The Blackwater Lightship in twenty years. * Independent on Sunday *

Prizes: Short-listed for Man Booker Prize 1999 (UK).

Author Biography: Colm Toibin was born in Enniscorthy in 1955. He is the author of eleven novels including The Master, Brooklyn, The Testament of Mary, and The Magician. His work has been shortlisted for the Booker three times, and won the Costa Novel Award, the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Impac Award. He has also published two collections of stories and many works of non-fiction.