The Blackwater Lightship
15 June 2023Imprint: Picador
Synopsis
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, from the author of Brooklyn and Long Island.
Set in Ireland in the 1990s, Colm Tóibín's The Blackwater Lightship tells the story of the Devereux family, and reveals the intense connection between grandmother, mother and daughter.
Helen’s beloved brother Declan is dying. Now, she must join her mother and grandmother in a crumbling old house by the sea, three generations calling an uneasy truce after years of strife, to be by his side. Together with Declan’s friends, who know more about him than any family, they must all deal with the past and come to terms with each other.
'It is in his emotional choreography that Tóibín shows himself to be an exceptional writer' – Sunday Telegraph
Details
15 June 2023288 pages
9781035034338Imprint: Picador
Reviews
This is the most astonishing piece of writing, lyrical in its emotion and spare in its construction . . . Tóibín has crafted an unmissable read.Sunday Herald
It is in his emotional choreography that Tóibín shows himself to be an exceptional writer. Helen is estranged from both her mother and grandmother . . . Tóibín 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
