Empty Family

In the captivating stories that make up The Empty Family Colm Tóibín delineates with a tender and unique sensibility lives of unspoken or unconscious longing, of individuals, often willingly, cast adrift from their history. 'I imagined lamplight, shadows, soft voices, clothes put away, the low sound of late news on the radio. And I thought as I crossed the bridge at Baggot Street to face the last stretch of my own journey home that no matter what I had done, I had not done that.'From the young Pakistani immigrant who seeks some kind of permanence in a strange town to the Irish woman reluctantly returning to Dublin and discovering a city that refuses to acknowledge her long absence each of Tóibín's stories manage to contain whole worlds: stories of fleeing the past and returning home, of family threads lost and ultimately regained.'Exquisite . . . The chief reason to read these stories is the peculiar power of Colm Tóibín's prose' Telegraph 'Astonishingly precise, depicting complex and conflicted states of mind with rare clarity' Observer 'Beautifully observed' Sunday Times

Colm Tóibín's new collection is the work of an author at the peak of his writing powers, Always deeply moving, the stories here - like the surf-washed pebbles on that Wexford beach - will be read for meaning and enjoyed for their shape and sound for ages to come, It's a collection that will only further fuel Tóibín's ascent through English fiction, Exquisite . . . The chief reason to read these stories is the peculiar power of Colm Tóibín's prose, Astonishingly precise, depicting complex and conflicted states of mind with rare clarity

Colm Tóibín was born in Enniscorthy in 1955. He is the author of nine novels including The Master, Brooklyn, The Testament of Mary and Nora Webster and, most recently, House of Names. His work has been shortlisted for the Booker three times, won the Costa Novel Award and the Impac Award. He has also published two collections of stories and many works of non-fiction. He lives in Dublin.