Author(s): Colm Tóibín [Toibin]

Novel | Ireland | Spain

A classic work of Irish literature, this award-winning tale is an exploration of love, art and identity. This was the night train to Barcelona, some hours before the dawn. This was 1950, late September. I had left my husband. I had left my home.Katherine Proctor has dared to leave her family in Ireland and reach out for a new life. Determined to become an artist, she flees to Spain, where she meets Miguel, a passionate man who has fought for his own freedoms. They retreat to the quiet intensity of the mountains and begin to build a life together. But as Miguel's past catches up with him, Katherine too is forced to re-examine her relationships: with her lover, her painting and the homeland she only thought she knew ... The South is the debut that introduced listeners to the astonishing gifts of Colm Tóibín, winning the Irish Times First Fiction Award in 1991. Arrestingly visual and enduringly atmospheric, it is a classic work of art, sacrifice and courage.

Review: 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 *

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.