Colm Tóibín’s tales of Ireland are already relics
He has published 11 novels, as well as much non-fiction, including fictionalised biographies of Henry James (The Master, 2004) and Thomas Mann (The Magician, 2021) as well as the great story of displacement, Brooklyn (2009), and its eventual sequel of return, Long Island (2024). His recurrent themes are loneliness and dislocation, opportunities missed, homes abandoned and secrets never disclosed, not to mention, to cut a long story short, death. A famous party animal in his day, Tóibín is not a happy bunny in his fiction, to say the least, not one of the great lookers forward.
