The South: A Novel

by Colm Tóibín

Overview

A highly acclaimed novel from the author of Brooklyn and an “immensely gifted and accomplished writer” (The Washington Post), about an Irishwoman who creates a new life in post-war Spain.

In 1950, Katherine Proctor leaves Ireland for Barcelona, determined to escape her family and become a painter. There she meets Miguel, an anarchist veteran of the Spanish Civil War, and begins to build a life with him. But Katherine cannot escape her past, as Michael Graves, a fellow Irish émigré in Spain, forces her to reexamine all her relationships: to her lover, her art, and the homeland she only thought she knew.

The South is a novel of classic themes—of art and exile, and of the seemingly irreconcilable yearnings for love and freedom—to which Colm Tóibín brings a new, passionate sensitivity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476704487
Publisher:	Scribner
Publication date:	10/30/2012
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	227
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island, an Oprah’s Book Club Pick; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; and Nora Webster; as well as two story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and was named the 2022–2024 Laureate for Irish Fiction by the Arts Council of Ireland. He was shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize. He was also awarded the Bodley Medal, the Würth Prize for European Literature, and the Prix Femina spécial for his body of work.

Editorial Reviews

Tóibín’s talent is amazing…a stunning novel.”—The Washington Post Book World

“A book of sustained lyrical beauty and power.”—Chicago Tribune

“A strong and moving work of fiction about the hard truths of changing one’s life. A grand achievement.”—Don DeLillo

“Tóibín’s first novel is a broad and beautifully worked canvas…an imaginative, deeply felt, and evocative tale.”—The Sunday Times

From the Publisher

Irish journalist Toibin's compelling tale of love and art set in the United Kingdom and Franco's Spain, makes for a rich and remarkable debut. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This exceptional first novel has the unusual quality of taking Irish material, allegedly unique, and making it European, a matter of some significance on the brink of the 1992 European Community. Here, in 1950, Katherine Proctor flees husband, child, and County Wexford for Spain. She, a Catalan lover, and another Irish emigre, painters all, fashion new worlds in their work while fighting past worlds in their lives. Toibin sketches this predicament with restrained vignettes concentrated on Katherine's general discontents and momentary satisfactions over a number of years evoking the Irish Civil War, the Spanish Civil War, Ulster violence, and Catalonian nationalism. Thus, The South raises personal neuroses to the power of collective politics. It comes with praise from Don DeLillo and John Banville, among whose works it fits very well.-- John P. Harrington, Cooper Union, New York

Library Journal