In the captivating stories that make up The Empty Family Colm Toibin delineates with a tender and unique sensibility lives of unspoken or unconscious longing, of individuals, often willingly, cast adrift from their history.

'I imagined lamplight, shadows, soft voices, clothes put away, the low sound of late news on the radio. And I thought as I crossed the bridge at Baggot Street to face the last stretch of my own journey home that no matter what I had done, I had not done that.'

From the young Pakistani immigrant who seeks some kind of permanence in a strange town to the Irish woman reluctantly returning to Dublin and discovering a city that refuses to acknowledge her long absence each of Toibin's stories manage to contain whole worlds: stories of fleeing the past and returning home, of family threads lost and ultimately regained.

'Exquisite . . . The chief reason to read these stories is the peculiar power of Colm Toibin's prose' Telegraph

'Astonishingly precise, depicting complex and conflicted states of mind with rare clarity' Observer

'Beautifully observed' Sunday Times

About the Author
Colm Toibin was born in Enniscorthy in 1955. He is the author of nine novels including The Master, Brooklyn, The Testament of Mary and Nora Webster and, most recently, House of Names. His work has been shortlisted for the Booker three times, won the Costa Novel Award and the Impac Award. He has also published two collections of stories and many works of non-fiction. He lives in Dublin.

Reviews
Colm Toibin's new collection is the work of an author at the peak of his writing powers * The Times *
Always deeply moving, the stories here - like the surf-washed pebbles on that Wexford beach - will be read for meaning and enjoyed for their shape and sound for ages to come * Tribune *
It's a collection that will only further fuel Toibin's ascent through English fiction * Independent on Sunday *
Exquisite . . . The chief reason to read these stories is the peculiar power of Colm Toibin's prose * Telegraph *
Astonishingly precise, depicting complex and conflicted states of mind with rare clarity * Observer *
Beautifully observed * Sunday Times *
Toibin's deceptively straightforward style continues to manage somehow to encompass both lucidity and ambiguity, precision and poetry * Irish Times *
Exquisite * Metro, Fiction of the Week *
These stories are always intensely interesting and sometimes profoundly provocative * Irish Independent *
Perfect; and as good as the best of William Trevor, than which there can be no higher praise * Scotsman *



Book Information
ISBN 9780141041773
Author Colm Toibin
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 159g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 14mm