The South by Colm Toibin
'Night is coming down and there is a hum of noise from the street. I have been here for several weeks. I am grateful that the fat woman who runs this hotel and her little mouse of a husband do not speak English. I remain a mystery to them; they cannot get through to me. The man in the next room - as far as I can understand a word he says - goes to the opera every night and listens to opera on his radio all the time.' The South begins with Katherine Proctor's arrival in Barcelona in 1950. Drawn by her longing to be an artist, she has left her family behind in Ireland. In Spain, she meets Miguel, an anarchist veteran of the Civil War and together they embark on a new life. The past catches up with them. and Katherine is forced to question her relationship to her lover, to her painting, and to the other man she meets in Spain, Michael Graves, through whom she discovers an Ireland she never knew. In a prose that is both lyrical and direct, Colm T?ib?n convinces his readers that Katherine will reconcile her freedom and her need to paint. To classical themes, he brings a new, passionate sensitivity.
The South is a daring, imaginative feat; the world it conjures is at once familiar and strange, and strangely movingA splendid first novel. John Banville
Colm Toibin is the author of four novels (The Blackwater Lightship was shortlisted for the Booker) and also a book about Catholic Europe.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781852421700 |
| ISBN 10 | 1852421703 |
| Title | The South |
| Author | Colm Toibin |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Profile Books Ltd |
| Year published | 2001-03-31 |
| Number of pages | 256 |
| Prizes | Winner of Irish Times Literary Prize Irish Literature Category 1991 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |