Colm Tóibín [ Ireland ]

Colm Tóibín was born in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland in 1955. Just after graduating in history and English at University College, Dublin, he went to Barcelona and worked as a language teacher. After spending three years there he returned to Dublin in 1978 and worked mainly as a journalist for »In Dublin« and »Hiberna« amongst others. During the late eighties he travelled around Latin America, Argentina in particular, and also visited Sudan and Egypt. By this point he had already finished the manuscript for his first novel. However, he was not successful in getting the book approved by publishers, so instead his first publications were specialised works of non-fiction including »Walk along the Borders« (1987).

The first of his six novels was finally published in 1990. »The South« tells the story of a woman who is dissatisfied with her marriage and flees to Barcelona. Although in Tóibín’s novels there is a recurring fascination with escape to and life in foreign countries, the landscape of his native Ireland usually serves as the setting in his work. However the slow process of change in human relations is at the forefront of the novels. The portrayal of this through the use of everyday details – dialogues, thoughts, observations and experiences – is all the more effective for the omission of unnecessary explanations. Implication is central to the plot: an underlying pain, a indescribable sense of bewilderment, a laboriously maintained balance. In »The Blackwater Lightship« (1999) a young male AIDS sufferer tries to reconcile his relationship with his difficult family and moves into his grandmother’s house. Tóibín’s most recent novel, »Brooklyn« (2009), tells the story of an Irish emigrant who finds love in her new home, New York. However she is forced to return home after receiving bad news and discovers that the limitations of her former life in Ireland have faded, opening up new possibilities. Recently the short story collection »Mothers and Sons« has been translated into German. Tóibín is also prolific as an author of non-fiction, critic and editor. In addition to travelogues, political articles and anthologies of modern literature, he has published essays and a play. He has worked as a teacher for the MFA program at the New School in Manhattan and writes regularly for »The New York Review of Books«. Tóibín’s works have been translated into 26 languages. He has also been a visiting writer at Standford University, the University of Texas at Austin and at Princeton University where he now teaches one semester a year.

His prizes include the Whitbread First Novel Award, the Encore Award, the E.M. Forster Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the French Prize for Best Foreign Book. The author lives in Dublin.

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