Mothers and Sons

A collection of exquisite stories from Booker-shortlisted Colm Tóibín.

Mothers and Sons is a sensitive meditation on the dramas surrounding this most elemental of relationships. Psychologically intricate and emotionally incisive, each of the nine stories focuses on a moment in which an unspoken balance shifts; in which a mother and son do battle, or experience a sudden crisis, thus leaving their conception of who they are subtly or seriously altered.

‘It’s truly remarkable that a writer of Tóibín’s great felicity, immense seriousness and general large awareness – a writer so naturally gifted as a novelist – can deliver short stories of such subtle empathy and brilliance. He’s dazzling’ Richard Ford

‘Tóibín is a master of understated emotions. From wintry landscapes, bereft of human life, to crowded pubs filled with musicians, every scene has the ring of truth’ Mail on Sunday

‘All the stories share a miraculous density. Short but weighty, they contain whole lives’ Sunday Times

‘Subtly and exquisitely written, the language never forced but utterly rooted in real worlds. Each story is haunting and memorable’ Dermot Bolger, Evening Herald

‘Some of the most accomplished and nuanced soundings contemporary fiction has to offer’ New York Times