Colm Tóibín

Author profile

born

January 01, 1955 in Enniscorthy, Ireland

gender

male

website

http://www.colmtoibin.com/

About this author

edit data

(From the authors website - http://www.colmtoibin.com/content/biogra... )
"Colm Toibin was born in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford in 1955. He studied at University College Dublin and lived in Barcelona between 1975 and 1978. Out of his experience in Barcelona be produced two books, the novel ‘The South’ (shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and winner of the Irish Times/ Aer Lingus First Fiction Award) and ‘Homage to Barcelona’, both published in 1990. When he returned to Ireland in 1978 he worked as a journalist for ‘In Dublin’, ‘Hibernia’ and ‘The Sunday Tribune’, becoming features editor of ‘In Dublin’ in 1981 and editor of Magill, Ireland’s current affairs magazine, in 1982. He left Magill in 1985 and travelled in Africa...more(From the authors website - http://www.colmtoibin.com/content/biogra... )
"Colm Toibin was born in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford in 1955. He studied at University College Dublin and lived in Barcelona between 1975 and 1978. Out of his experience in Barcelona be produced two books, the novel ‘The South’ (shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and winner of the Irish Times/ Aer Lingus First Fiction Award) and ‘Homage to Barcelona’, both published in 1990. When he returned to Ireland in 1978 he worked as a journalist for ‘In Dublin’, ‘Hibernia’ and ‘The Sunday Tribune’, becoming features editor of ‘In Dublin’ in 1981 and editor of Magill, Ireland’s current affairs magazine, in 1982. He left Magill in 1985 and travelled in Africa and South America. His journalism from the 1980s was collected in ‘The Trial of the Generals’ (1990). His other work as a journalist and travel writer includes ‘Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border’ (1987) and ‘The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe’ (1994). His other novels are: ‘The Heather Blazing (1992, winner of the Encore Award); ‘The Story of the Night’ (1996, winner of the Ferro-Grumley Prize); ‘The Blackwater Lightship’ (1999, shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Prize and the Booker Prize and made into a film starring Angela Lansbury); ‘The Master’ (2004, winner of the Dublin IMPAC Prize; the Prix du Meilleur Livre; the LA Times Novel of the Year; and shortlisted for the Booker Prize); ‘Brooklyn’ (2009, winner of the Costa Novel of the Year). His short story collections are ‘Mothers and Sons’ (2006, winner of the Edge Hill Prize) and ‘The Empty Family (2010). His play ‘Beauty in a Broken Place’ was performed at the Peacock Theatre in Dublin in 2004. His other books include: ‘The Modern Library: the 200 Best Novels Since 1950’ (with Carmen Callil); ‘Lady Gregory’s Toothbrush’ (2002); ‘Love in a Dark Time: Gay Lives from Wilde to Almodovar’ (2002) and ‘All a Novelist Needs: Essays on Henry James’ (2010). He has edited ‘The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction’. His work has been translated into thirty languages. In 2008, a book of essays on his work ‘Reading Colm Toibin’, edited by Paul Delaney, was published. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Ulster and from University College Dublin. He is a regular contributor to the Dublin Review, the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books. In 2006 he was appointed to the Arts Council in Ireland. He has twice been Stein Visiting Writer at Stanford University and also been a visiting writer at the Michener Center at the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently Leonard Milberg Lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton University.

Colm Toibin’s collection of stories ‘The Empty Family’ will be published in the UK in October 2010 and in the US and Canada in January 2011. His collection of essays on Henry James, ‘All a Novelist Needs’ will be published in November 2010."(less)

See if your friends have read any of Colm Tóibín's books.

combine editions
Books by Colm Tóibín

Average rating: 3.63 · 15,590 ratings · 3,151 reviews · 68 distinct works

	Brooklyn 3.56 avg rating — 8,019 ratings — published 2009 — 39 editions	My rating:
	The Master 3.77 avg rating — 1,953 ratings — published 2003 — 33 editions	My rating:
	The Blackwater Lightship 3.81 avg rating — 861 ratings — published 1999 — 16 editions	My rating:
	The Empty Family 3.66 avg rating — 480 ratings — published 2010 — 11 editions	My rating:
	Mothers and Sons 3.76 avg rating — 440 ratings — published 2006 — 19 editions	My rating:
	The Story of the Night 3.75 avg rating — 377 ratings — published 1996 — 18 editions	My rating:
	The Heather Blazing 3.82 avg rating — 262 ratings — published 1992 — 7 editions	My rating:
	The South 3.46 avg rating — 147 ratings — published 1992 — 10 editions	My rating:
	Love in a Dark Time: And Other Explorations of Gay Lives and Literature 3.63 avg rating — 95 ratings — 7 editions	My rating:
	The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe (Vintage Departures) 3.72 avg rating — 32 ratings — published 1994 — 5 editions	My rating:

More books by Colm Tóibín…

Upcoming Events

No scheduled events. Add an event.

Quotes by Colm Tóibín

“..Some of our loves and attachments are elemental and beyond our choosing, and for that very reason they come spiced with pain and regret and need and hollowness and a feeling as close to anger as I will ever be able to imagine. ”
― Colm Tóibín

18 people liked it

“As I settled down to sleep in that new bed in the dark city, I saw that it was too late now, too late for everything. I would not be given a second chance. In the hours when I woke, I have to tell you that this struck me almost with relief.”
― Colm Tóibín

8 people liked it

“in skies of deepening blue
the moon, heaven's queen
was now afloat”
― Colm Tóibín

5 people liked it

See all Colm Tóibín's quotes »

Polls

The 2009 Goodreads Choice Awards: FICTION

The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Goodreads Author)

1160 votes 17.0%

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

697 votes 10.2%

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (Goodreads Author)

337 votes 5.0%

Shanghai Girls A Novel by Lisa See (Goodreads Author)

330 votes 4.8%

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

315 votes 4.6%

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

304 votes 4.5%

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

287 votes 4.2%

Fool A Novel by Christopher Moore

248 votes 3.6%

The Magicians by Lev Grossman (Goodreads Author)

237 votes 3.5%

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

232 votes 3.4%

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet A Novel by Jamie Ford (Goodreads Author)

230 votes 3.4%

Juliet, Naked A Novel by Nick Hornby

214 votes 3.1%

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

198 votes 2.9%

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

151 votes 2.2%

Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk

151 votes 2.2%

The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman

148 votes 2.2%

South of Broad by Pat Conroy

146 votes 2.1%

This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

141 votes 2.1%

Let the Great World Spin A Novel by Colum McCann (Goodreads Author)

138 votes 2.0%

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

132 votes 1.9%

Brooklyn A Novel by Colm Tóibín

124 votes 1.8%

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt

118 votes 1.7%

Drood by Dan Simmons

112 votes 1.6%

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

106 votes 1.6%

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

103 votes 1.5%

The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf (Goodreads Author)

92 votes 1.4%

That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo

83 votes 1.2%

The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif Larsen

74 votes 1.1%

Await Your Reply A Novel by Dan Chaon (Goodreads Author)

71 votes 1.0%

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

64 votes 0.9%

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister (Goodreads Author)

63 votes 0.9%

6806 total votes

35 comments

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Wilde about Books: The Story of the Night - reviews	1	3	Jul 02, 2009 08:51am
Novel Ladies: Natasha's Summer Challenge 2009	6	27	Aug 13, 2009 08:41pm
Novel Ladies: Natasha's Reading Log	38	45	Sep 20, 2009 07:46pm
The Seasonal Read...: FALL CHALLENGE 2009 COMPLETED TASKS	4057	2548	Nov 30, 2009 09:01pm
Glens Falls (NY) ...: What are U reading these days? (Part Five) (begun 3/12/09)	1049	448	Dec 31, 2009 10:39pm
Glens Falls (NY) ...: Have you seen any good movies lately? (Part TWO - begun 1/23/09)	1139	305	Jan 01, 2010 06:31pm
Constant Reader: What are you reading?	835	526	Mar 31, 2010 05:16pm

More…

Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Colm to Goodreads.

Add New
Videos

Colm's Fans (137)

Colm Tóibín

Author profile

combine editions
Books by Colm Tóibín

Upcoming Events

Quotes by Colm Tóibín

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add NewVideos

Colm's Fans (137)

Colm Tóibín

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by Colm Tóibín

Upcoming Events

Quotes by Colm Tóibín

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add New
Videos

combine editions
Books by Colm Tóibín