The Blackwater Lightship: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize

by Colm Tóibín (Author), Colm Tóibín (Author)

New
Paperback
2008
$8.26

'This is the most astonishing piece of writing, lyrical in its emotion and spare in its construction ...Toibin has crafted an unmissable read' Sunday Herald In Blackwater in the early 1990s, three women -- Dora Devereux, her daughter Lily and her granddaughter Helen -- have come together after years of strife and reached an uneasy truce. Helen's adored brother Declan is dying. Two friends join him and the women in a crumbling old house by the sea, where the six of them, from different generations and with different beliefs, must listen and come to terms with one another. 'It is in his emotional choreography that Toibin shows himself to be an exceptional writer. Helen is estranged from both her mother and grandmother ...Toibin helps them make peace -- and he does it beautifully' Sunday Telegraph 'He writes in spare, powerful prose and he is truly perceptive about family relationships which, at times, makes reading his stories incredibly painful. But this is a beautiful novel' Belfast News 'We shall be reading and living with The Blackwater Lightship in twenty years' Independent on Sunday

Synopsis

'This is the most astonishing piece of writing, lyrical in its emotion and spare in its construction ...Toibin has crafted an unmissable read' Sunday Herald In Blackwater in the early 1990s, three women -- Dora Devereux, her daughter Lily and her granddaughter Helen -- have come together after years of strife and reached an uneasy truce. Helen's adored brother Declan is dying. Two friends join him and the women in a crumbling old house by the sea, where the six of them, from different generations and with different beliefs, must listen and come to terms with one another. 'It is in his emotional choreography that Toibin shows himself to be an exceptional writer. Helen is estranged from both her mother and grandmother ...Toibin helps them make peace -- and he does it beautifully' Sunday Telegraph 'He writes in spare, powerful prose and he is truly perceptive about family relationships which, at times, makes reading his stories incredibly painful. But this is a beautiful novel' Belfast News 'We shall be reading and living with The Blackwater Lightship in twenty years' Independent on Sunday

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
Edition: Reprints
Publisher: Picador
Published: 07 Mar 2008
ISBN 10: 0330389866
ISBN 13: 9780330389860
Prizes: Shortlisted for IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2001 and Booker Prize for Fiction 1999.

Media Reviews

This is the most astonishing piece of writing, lyrical in its emotion and spare in its construction . . . Toibin has crafted an unmissable read. * Sunday Herald *
This is the most astonishing piece of writing, lyrical in its emotion and spare in its construction . . . Toibin has crafted an unmissable read. * Sunday Herald *
It is in his emotional choreography that Toibin shows himself to be an exceptional writer. Helen is estranged from both her mother and grandmother . . . Toibin helps them make peace - and he does it beautifully. * Sunday Telegraph *
He writes in spare, powerful prose and he is truly perceptive about family relationships which, at times, makes reading his stories incredibly painful. But this is a beautiful novel. * Belfast News *
We shall be reading and living with The Blackwater Lightship in twenty years. * Independent on Sunday *

Author Bio

Colm Toibin was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of several novels, including Brooklyn, the 2009 Costa Novel of the Year, The Master, which was shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize and winner of the LA Times Book Prize and the IMPAC Book Award, and The Blackwater Lightship, which was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize and the 2001 IMPAC Award. His non-fiction includes Bad Blood, Homage to Barcelona, The Sign of the Cross and Love in a Dark Time. His work has been translated into seventeen languages. He lives in Dublin.