The News from Dublin

In The News from Dublin, a beautiful collection of short stories from the bestselling author of Brooklyn and Long Island, Colm Tóibìn delves into the days and nights of those living far from home: lives of great longing, at a great distance from past lives and past selves.

A woman in Galway hears of the death of her son in the First World War. An Irishman seeks anonymity in Barcelona, haunted by crimes he has committed. A man goes to Dublin from Enniscorthy to implore the Minister for Health for a special favour. A young woman is pregnant during the Spanish Civil War. An undocumented worker finds himself living an illegal life and must leave San Francisco, and his child, after thirty years in America. Three sisters who have been living in Argentina decide to return to Catalonia.

'Tóibìn is the consummate cartographer of the private self, summoning with restrained acuity (and a delicious streak of sly humour) the thoughts his characters struggle to find words for' - Clare Clark, Guardian

Ideal for readers who...

• love literary short stories rooted in longing, distance, and the ache of lives lived far from home
• enjoy character-driven fiction spanning Ireland and beyond, with history and private memory close to the surface
• prefer restrained, emotionally precise writing that captures what people cannot quite say out loud
• are drawn to morally complex characters, haunted pasts, and quiet turning points with lasting consequences
• are fans of Colm Tóibìn’s novels and want his storytelling in an intimate, short-form collection