Books by Colm Tóibín
“In Brooklyn, we have Eilis Lacey, who comes from Ireland to Brooklyn, where she meets Tony—a plumber with a big Italian family. I don’t want to give too much away, but she’s already very attached to Tony, but then—after maybe nine months or a year—she has to go back because her sister has died, and there she meets Jim. They have the summer together, then she, very abruptly and without saying goodbye, leaves and goes back to her life in Brooklyn. The love story is the motor to the book, although you take away so much more from the book than a simple love story. It’s really a book about emigration and immigration, and feeling dislocated both from where you came from and where you landed. Tóibín’s writing is beautiful. I love every single one of his books. I’m completely enamoured with his writing.” Read more...
The Best Literary Love Stories
Lily King, Novelist
“House of Names is a retelling of the story of Clytemnestra, Iphigenia and Agamemnon. For those who don’t know, Agamemnon sacrifices his eldest daughter, Iphigenia, in order for the gods to provide winds to get the fleet going. But Colm Tóibín’s book is about the people on the sidelines. Iphigenia doesn’t tell her story, and Agamemnon isn’t telling his story; it’s Clytemnestra, and it’s Iphigenia’s siblings Orestes and Electra.” Read more...
Novels Based on Mythological Retellings
Francesca Simon, Children's Author
“The Magician is a magisterial work taking in a wide sweep of twentieth-century history while sensitively dissecting the inner life of one of the greatest writers of his day. A less author than Tóibín would have been overwhelmed by the richness of his material, spanning as it does the rise of Nazism, Mann’s need to escape from Germany with his Jewish wife and family, and his turbulent years in America. But The Magician is a novel, not a biography, and Tóibín’s focus is always on Mann himself, his homo-erotic longings, his curious detachment from his unruly children and the way in which he used his own experiences to create his novels.” Read more...
The Best Historical Fiction: The 2022 Walter Scott Prize Shortlist
Elizabeth Laird, Novelist
Interviews where books by Colm Tóibín were recommended
The Best Historical Fiction: The 2022 Walter Scott Prize Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Laird
Every year, the Walter Scott Prize highlights the best new historical novels. In 2022, the shortlist comprises four fantastic works of historical fiction that immerse the reader in the past—from 16th-century Scotland to 1920s Trinidad—while confronting universal human dramas we still struggle with today. Elizabeth Laird, one of the judges, talks us through their choices this year.
Novels Based on Mythological Retellings, recommended by Francesca Simon
Mythological retellings bring us stories with timeless resonance, viewed through the lens of modern concerns, explains Francesca Simon. The bestselling author tells us about her five favourite retellings, and introduces her first adult novel and the rich world of folklore and legend that inspires it.
Books by Irish Authors
Home to the Blarney Stone — said to bestow “the gift of the gab” — and with a long tradition of valuing bards and wandering storytellers, it is no surprise that Ireland has produced some of the most recognised names in the English language canon. Considering the small population, Irish authors continue to punch well above their weight in publishing. Here we bring you a selection of Irish authors that have been recommended on Five Books by experts, from bestselling and award-winning contemporary writers to both famous and less well-known classic authors.
The Best Literary Love Stories, recommended by Lily King
A satisfying literary love story doesn’t need to end happily ever after—but one does need to be left with a sense that two characters belong together, advises the novelist Lily King, whose book Heart the Lover follows the long tail of a campus love triangle. Here, she selects five novels from literary writers that examine love and desire in the depth they deserve.
