The bestselling and award-winning author of Brooklyn, Colm TĂłibĂn, returns with a stunning collection of storiesââa book thatâs both a perfect introduction to TĂłibĂn and, for longtime fans, a bracing pleasureâ (The Seattle Times).
Critics praised Brooklyn as a âbeautifully rendered portrait of Brooklyn and provincial Ireland in the 1950s.â In The Empty Family, TĂłibĂn has extended his imagination further, offering an incredible range of periods and charactersâpeople linked by love, loneliness, desireââthe unvarying dilemmas of the human heartâ ( The Observer, UK).
In the breathtaking long story âThe Street,â TĂłibĂn imagines a relationship between Pakistani workers in Barcelonaâa taboo affair in a community ruled by obedience and silence. In âTwo Women,â an eminent and taciturn Irish set designer takes a job in her homeland and must confront emotions she has long repressed. âSilenceâ is a brilliant historical set piece about Lady Gregory, who tells the writer Henry James a confessional story at a dinner party.
The Empty Family will further cement TĂłibĂnâs status as âhis generationâs most gifted writer of loveâs complicated, contradictory powerâ ( Los Angeles Times ).