The News from Dublin: Stories

by Colm Tóibín

From Colm Tóibín, “one of the world’s best living literary writers” (The Boston Globe), comes a brilliant collection of nine short stories, many never-before-published, set across Ireland, Spain, and America—about the complexities of family, longing, loss, and love.

Celebrated as “his generation’s most gifted writer of love’s complicated, contradictory power” (Los Angeles Times), Colm Tóibín is a master of short fiction as well as the novel, able to summon an extraordinary intensity of emotion in a brief tale. The eleven stories transport readers across continents and eras.

In “The Journey to Galway,” a mother who has learned of the death of her son, a fighter pilot in World War I, travels to Galway to inform his wife and their three now fatherless children. “Sleep,” originally published in The New Yorker, explores the rift between two lovers as one of them cannot reckon with his grief and fear after the death of his brother. Death, again, is a central character in the title story, “The News from Dublin,” as Maurice Webster travels to Dublin to try to save his younger brother who is dying of tuberculosis. Maurice must petition the health minister for access to a new experimental drug, and this is the only hope.

Tóibín’s stories are rich with the complexities of family dynamics, the haunting pull of the past, and the quiet revelations that define our lives. His characters, whether navigating the aftermath of war, or forbidden love, or the desires of a girl in Catalan, or the quiet struggles mundane life, are rendered with illuminating, unforgettable empathy and insight.

The News from Dublin is an exquisite introduction to Tóibín’s short fiction for new readers who may have discovered Tóibín with the publication of Long Island, and a glorious new collection for longtime fans of this “achingly beautiful writer…with infinite compassion” (The Miami Herald).

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Ireland, Irish Literature, Historical Fiction, Spain

304 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication March 31, 2026

About the author

Colm Tóibín FRSL, is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, and poet. Tóibín is currently Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University in Manhattan and succeeded Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester.

Reviews

[Angela M · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
This story collection spans the world through Ireland , Spain, New York in various time frames , but the burdens of grief, loss, and fear told introspectively are universal as families deal with death and despair. The writing as I have come to expect from Colm Toibin is beautiful, but the collection for me was uneven . Some I loved and others left me unsatisfied with abrupt endings . I enjoyed , “ THE JOURNEY TO GALWAY” , the first story which is a contemplative story of the depth of a mother’s grief , carrying the burden of having to relate the sad news. My heart was heavy throughout. The opening sentence drew me in :

“She remembered an unusual silence that morning—a stillness in the trees and in the farmyard, and a deadness in the house itself, no sounds from the kitchen, and no one moving up and down the stairs. But she wondered if the silence had been real, or, instead, if it had been something she had merely imagined afterwards.


A few others are commendable. “A FREE MAN” is both disturbing and sad . A man out of prison, but not free . I was taken by this story , but ended up not fully satisfied, not feeling I knew the truth . “SLEEP” is about grief untold. “THE NEWS FROM DUBLIN” depicts the desire for hope in the face of death. “BARTON SPRINGS” is another full of grief affecting a man’s life. “ SUMMER OF “38” at its heart is beautiful love story . “A SUM OF MONEY” reflects on how desperation to fit in makes for desperate choices , mistakes on the part of a young man .

Hoping to start the new year on a less depressing book, but I have to acknowledge the writing which at times had me rereading sentences just to experience them again.

I received a copy of this book from Simon & Schuster through NetGalley and Edelweiss.

[Ceecee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories by best selling author Colm Tóibín that has a central connecting theme of either living far from home, perhaps with a longing to return, all are a distance from their past lives and perhaps from their former selves and there’s grief and loss, as well as misunderstanding.

The collection begins with a Journey to Galway, with a grieving mother, reflecting on a time before and after her son‘s wartime death. It’s short, sad and sharp and how the author packs so much into such a short story is admirable, this is probably my favourite in the collection. Another one that I think is especially good is News from Dublin which gives the collection its title. Here a brother goes from his family home in Enniscothy to Dublin to desperately seek help for a sick brother. It starts with optimism and hope but what news will he bring back from Dublin? One of the reasons I particularly like this one as it takes the storytelling into the Dail and the government of De Valera. It’s an island of a very different time to the present day and I like the glimpse into its past.

A.Sum of Money is a rather enigmatic tale of a boyhood mistake born out of desperation which takes us into another institution, this being a boarding school run by The Brothers. It’s a bit of an odd one, but there’s a recurring theme of the church/The Brothers which brings me neatly to A Free Man. This is an unsettling story but which confronts an uncomfortable past but does so well and very carefully. In Barcelona we meet Joe, whose family have severed all ties and he’s gone to Spain in search of anonymity after a very chequered past. It’s a reflective story as whilst Joe is free to wander the streets of Barcelona, he’s chained to his past whatever darkness lurks therein.

The final story is the longest and is entitled The Catalina Girls and concerns three sisters, taking the storytelling from Spain to Argentina and then back again to Catalonia. This is an immersive tale but which captures the sisters story and with distinctive characterisation.

Overall, this is a very well written series of short stories as you would expect from this talented author. It’s low-key, quiet, poignant and reflective and the stories span several decades. The heart of them all bar the final one, lies in Ireland and from their dispersing far and wide. If you like short stories and admire this author then I can recommend this immersive collection.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Pan Macmillan/Picadour for the much appreciated early copy in return for an honest review.

[Louis Muñoz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I've read and enjoyed several of this author's books but this was my first time reading any of his short stories. I thought the first, second, and last ones were the strongest of this collection, but the rest of the stories didn't engage me as much, unfortunately. Having said that, I would still recommend this book.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publishers for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

The News From Dublin is a collection of short stories that have mostly appeared in other publications previously.

The two stories that I found most moving from the collection were the title story, News From Dublin, in which a man travels to the capital to try to get a cure for his consumptive brother; and The Journey to Galway, which tells the story of a woman who has some bad news to divulge during the war.

I knocked a star off for the final story, The Catalan Sisters, which felt like it rambled a little too much. It felt, to me, out of place in the collection although I cannot pinpoint why.

On the whole, a collection of well written stories that could describe any of our lives in times of trouble. I wasn't particularly blown away by any of them but they were all interesting.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Picador for the digital review copy.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a well written collection of short storied, but it is lacking thematical or temporal focus forvme. Some stories work well, but it did not quite come together.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

my 11th tóibín. what a writer.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The News from Dublin is a collection of nine short stories loosely linked by a theme of characters either living far from home or building a new life, putting a distance between their current and past selves.

The collection covers a range of topics and settings. The stories were all interesting, but I inevitably found some much stronger than others. The opening story, The Journey to Galway, was particularly moving. A woman receives a telegram informing her of her son’s death in the First World War, so she takes a train to Galway to break the news to her daughter-in-law. Tóibín perfectly captures the range of emotions she goes through during the journey: grief, loss, a sense of denial, and the trauma of being the one who has to deliver bad news.

Another of my favourites was Five Bridges, set in the present day and tackling a subject that is very relevant at the moment. It follows an Irish plumber, Paul, who is an immigrant living in America and, despite having been there for thirty years, he believes he will be a target of ICE because he came on a tourist visa and has no other documents. Before he leaves the country, probably forever, he reconnects with his young daughter, Geraldine, who lives with his ex-partner and her new husband. As Paul bonds with Geraldine at last, he is full of regret, both for the years she’s been missing from his life and for the future he faces without her. I also liked A Sum of Money, which is about a teenage boy whose parents have made sacrifices to be able to send him to an expensive boarding school. Conscious of not having as much money to spend as his friends, he begins to steal from the other boys – but what will happen when he’s found out? I enjoyed this one as it felt a bit different from the rest of the stories, which made it stand out.

I only really have two criticisms of this book. One is that most of the stories are very open-ended, leaving things unresolved and not providing any answers. As a sort of snapshot of life, giving a glimpse into a character’s world, they’re very effective, but I personally tend to prefer short stories with a more satisfactory ending or a clever twist. The other is that the final story, The Catalan Girls, is novella-length and takes up most of the second half of the book. Although I did enjoy that one, which follows the story of three sisters who move to Argentina from Catalonia as children, I thought it made the whole book feel unbalanced.

The stories in this collection were written at various times and first appeared in other publications rather than being written specifically for this book, but they fit together well (apart from the final one being so much longer). They all have a quiet, reflective tone and I found them very poignant.

[Jason Pollard]

Very good quietly devastating prose and I will probably finish this at some point! But, I was basically reading to figure out if I wanted to do it for my book club and decided to do something older/a little more varied in tone.

Would still heartily recommend to anyone who likes stories about grief, stories about regret, stories about regretting grief, or stories about Irish people (with all of the implied grief & regret that encompasses).

[Georgina Reads_Eats_Explores · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huge thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. Out March 26th.

There’s something quietly magnetic about this collection. No histrionics, no grand flourishes, just a steady, attentive gaze, fixed on people living with distance: from home, from their past selves, from the lives they thought they might have. Colm Tóibín has always excelled at this kind of emotional cartography, and The News from Dublin feels like a masterclass in how much can be said with restraint.

The stories unfold at an unhurried pace, rooted firmly in character and place. Streets, cafés, institutions, homes, all rendered through small, telling details that immediately ground you. There’s a faintly sepia-toned quality to the collection, as though many of these lives belong to a shared historical moment, even when the timeline nudges closer to the present. It feels retrospective without being nostalgic, reflective without being indulgent.

I have a complicated relationship with short stories. I often find them frustrating — just as I’m settling in, they’re over. That never quite happened here. Each story feels carefully shaped, complete in itself, leaving space for reflection rather than bafflement. You’re brought in, allowed to observe closely, and then gently released, often with a small emotional bruise you only notice later.

Tóibín is particularly good on difficult people. Some of these characters are frankly unlikable, but they are always convincing. There’s no judgment in the writing, just psychological precision. You believe them, even when you don’t want to sit with them for long. That believability is the collection’s backbone.

A subtle connective thread runs through the book, news originating in Dublin and filtering outward, and I didn’t fully cop it until I reached the story titled The News from Dublin itself. Once it clicks, it’s quietly brilliant. Messages carried, delayed, misinterpreted. Lives altered by information arriving too late or in the wrong way. It’s understated and deeply effective.

Place matters enormously here. Dublin, Wexford, Enniscorthy, New York Tóibín writes from terrain he knows intimately, and it shows. The specificity is a pleasure: the Dáil, Bewley’s, the texture of institutions and everyday routines. Religion is threaded throughout, too: convents, nuns, faith woven into daily life, adding to the sense of a particular social and historical moment pressing softly against the present.

The collection gradually builds towards longer pieces, culminating in The Catalina Girls, which feels closer to a novella than a short story. It almost catches you out, especially if you’re reading digitally, and I was utterly absorbed. Three sisters, lives unfolding across countries and years, and a sense that you could happily stay with them for much longer. It lingered with me long after the final page.

This does feel slightly old-fashioned, as though it belongs to another era, but that sense of looking back is part of its quiet power. There’s a confidence here in silence, in place, in the unsaid. The emotional economy is impressive.

Readers who love Brooklyn or Long Island will feel very much at home. This occupies the same emotional terrain: inner lives rendered with care, history hovering at the edges, and a deep trust in the power of small moments. Subtle, restrained, and quietly addictive. Be warned, you may well read it in one sitting.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The News from Dublin is a gentle and thoughtful collection of stories. Colm Tóibín writes about everyday people dealing with love, loss, and change, using clear and calm language. The stories are quiet but full of feeling, and they leave you thinking about the characters long after you finish reading.

[Gayle · Rating 3 out of 5]

the news from Dublin is good news!

[Laura King · Rating 4 out of 5]

The way I screamed when the Webster family featured in two separate stories from Colm Tóibín 💜💛

[Di S · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.
A charming collection of short stories, with the final, longer one, The Catalan Girls, being more of a novella. They have shared and recurrent themes of grief, loss, family relationships and secrets, as well as a sense of displacement from home and a longing for return.

In Journey to Galway a mother receives the news that her only son has been killed in the last year of the war and the story tells of her journey to Galway to carry the news to her daughter in law and grandchildren.

Summer of ‘38 tells the story of Marta, a young woman during the Spanish Civil War, and her memories of the soldiers at a local encampment. Now elderly, with adult daughters, she negotiates around a prospective encounter to ensure that her secret past and the present do not collide.

In Five Bridges Irishman Paul is in a reflective mood as he spends a final few days with his young daughter, Geraldine, before he plans to leave the US, knowing that as an illegal immigrant he will not be able to return.

In Sleep a man seeks help to deal with nightmares about the death of his brother that threaten to overshadow every aspect of his life.

In The News from Dublin Maurice makes a trip to Dublin to meet the Health Minister and see if he can get his sick brother onto a potentially lifesaving drug trial.

Barton Springs is a quiet reflection on loss and solitude.

In A Sum of Money with finances tight at home, Dan finds a way to cover his expenses at his diocesan boarding school.

A Free Man - a man is released from prison, but never feels entirely free, as his past continues to haunt him.

The Catalan Girls - follows the lives of three sisters from Spain to Argentina and back to Catalonia after the death of their aunt. It deals with sibling relationships and imperfect childhood memories as well as the overall theme of travel and displacement versus a sense of belonging. This story at the end of the book felt a bit too long and rambling really, which is why the collection wasn't a five star read for me.

As always, Tóibín perfectly captures the depths of human emotions at life’s most difficult times. These stories are simultaneously both gentle in tone and yet powerful in their messages.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the advanced review copy.

[Veerle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Colm Tóibín’s The News from Dublin is a remarkably quiet collection of stories, yet beneath its calm surface runs a persistent current of pain, restraint, occasional horror and unresolved tension. These are stories shaped less by what is said than by what remains unspoken: grief, illness, shame, and longing are rarely dramatized, but instead carried with a kind of muted dignity that defines many of Tóibín’s characters.

Throughout the collection, Tóibín shows a deep interest in moral ambiguity. In “A Sum of Money,” for instance, Dan’s petty theft is never framed in a way that invites outright condemnation. Instead, it emerges from a background of scarcity and social precarity, complicating any easy judgment. He may be educated through the support of a wealthier relative—his instincts remain shaped by deprivation. Tóibín suggests that one’s origins are not easily shed; social movement does not necessarily entail inner transformation.

This tension between external change and internal stasis recurs across the collection. In “A Free Man,” the idea of freedom itself is interrogated. Though the protagonist is legally free after serving time for child abuse, his own admission—that he regrets only being caught—undermines any notion of moral rehabilitation. His relocation to Barcelona, rather than signaling renewal, emphasizes his isolation and emotional emptiness. Freedom, in this story, is stripped of its usual associations and becomes something far more unsettling: the inability to escape oneself.

Tóibín often situates these personal struggles within broader cultural and historical frameworks. There are clear echoes of Joyce (Nora, Maurice walking the streets of Dublin) particularly in the way characters move through cities and life marked by memory and identity, as in The News from Dublin. Yet while Joyce’s Dubliners are confined to the city, Tóibín’s characters are dispersed across the globe—Barcelona, Argentina, elsewhere. Migration offers movement, but not necessarily release. The past persists, quietly but insistently.

“The Catalan Girls,” the final story, brings many of these themes into sharp focus. It traces the lives of sisters who flee to Argentina with a mother scarred and devastated by life and the domineering influence of their eldest sibling, a figure both understandable and deeply unsympathetic. Her manipulations, initially rooted in survival, calcify into a lifelong structure of control. One sister frees herself, but with scars, while another only rebels late in life, raising the question of whether freedom, when delayed for decades, can ever fully arrive. Here, as elsewhere, Tóibín portrays family as both a site of care and a source of enduring constraint.

Small, seemingly incidental details—such as a character forgetting to receive ashes on Ash Wednesday—quietly signal a loosening of tradition and belief. These moments reflect a broader, post-religious sensibility: rituals linger, but their authority has faded. What remains is habit, memory, and a sense of something lost but not fully mourned.

Across these stories, Tóibín constructs a world in which people move, change circumstances, and endure, yet remain tethered to their pasts, their environments, and their own limitations. The collection’s power lies in its restraint: it refuses easy resolutions or clear moral positions, instead asking what it means to live with what cannot be undone, and whether freedom—emotional, moral, or otherwise—is ever truly attainable.

Thank you PanMacmillan | Picador for this wonderful ARC.

[liz gopsill · Rating 4 out of 5]

“But I know what you are like when you are asleep. I know the way your hands move towards me in the bed when you half-wake and then how you relax as you begin to doze again.”

I want to start by thanking NetGalley, Colm Tóibín and Picador for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. The News from Dublin will be out March 26, 2026.

Through a short collection of stories, Tóibín examines universal human experiences of loss, grief, homesickness and a want to belong. Each story is beautiful in its own way, shifting drastically from different time periods, locations, perspectives, and tones with the through line connections of being far from home and feeling a disconnect that can only be treated by taking a risk and often returning to one’s past.

While each of the nine stories selected for this collection are beautifully written, my favorites have to be “The Journey to Galway”, “Sleep”, “The News from Dublin”, and “Barton Springs”. The first tells the story of a mother who, after learning of the death of her son in the First World War, must prepare to bring the news to his wife and children. The what ifs she asks herself along with the blame she feels for not worrying that morning followed by her means of busying herself in preparing for the journey and detaching herself from the telegraph were so haunting and real, it truly set a precedent for the rest of this collection.

“Sleep” tells the story of a gay man who is haunted by the death of his brother, so much to the point it affects his relationship years later. When pushed to seek help, the narrator puts himself in the shoes of his brother who died alone waiting for an ambulance which he partially blames himself for as he had been awake in England when it happened. The balance of humor and grief leaves a bittersweet taste that perfectly encapsulates how difficult it is to ask for help.

“The News from Dublin” is one of my favorites, following a man grappling with his disconnect to his faith and his family as his brother is dying from TB. Set in the 1940s, the Irish language teacher must journey to Dublin to ask a prominent member of Fianna Fáil to help him gain access to an antibiotic to save his brother’s life. The self-consciousness, hopefulness and eventual hopelessness and despair feel so realistic, especially the starstruck moment when the narrator sees Eamon de Valera in the flesh.

“Barton Springs” is the shortest story in the collection, a nostalgic daydream during a roadtrip that is equal parts moody and romantic. A couple go on a roadtrip and wind up in Austin, Texas where the narrator was living when their brother died. This picks up directly after the events of “The News from Dublin” but is much lighter, relying on metaphor and romantic imagery surrounding a public swimming pool and chance encounters in the changing rooms.

The only criticism I have with this collection is how unbalanced it felt with the final story being about as long as the eight others combined. “The Catalan Sisters” was touching but it left me wanting more complexity from the female characters like we get from the first story in this collection. The sisters’ disconnect from both places they’ve called home is crafted so carefully and while their different memories help to further shape their story, I wish we were given more moments of humanity from each sister to add more depth to their character.

Overall, such a treat to read this early!

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for an advance copy of this collection of short stories by an Irish writer who creates stories about people sometimes going through the worst, sometimes the best, or just trying to get by, be good, and do right, with all the costs that come with it.

Writers tend to write what they know and what they are good at. Some are masters of the short story form, never tackling the novel. Novel writers can have problems writing short stories, needing pages to tell their stories, a skill in itself. Some can writer of the past with a feeling that you are there, while others make their writing timeless. Or can write about real people in a way that makes them relatable, or fictional characters more real than any on reality shows. And some are masters like the author Colm Tóibín who can write short works, sprawling novels creating unforgettable characters, tales featuring real people, and even short works about the author himself. The News from Dublin: Stories by Colm Tóibín are a collection of short stories, featuring characters new and old, spanning different times, different places, but all unforgettable.

The collection features eleven stories, older works and new ones featuring characters from previous books, and a few new people that hopefully will appear again. Two stories, at least to me stand out. The first story in the collection and one that stayed with me is The Journey to Galway, about a woman in wartime who receives news, and has to travel to the Galway to share it with others. The second The News from Dublin was another that hit me, about the Webster family, who Tóibín has written about previously. This one features a man traveling to Dublin to get help for his younger brother who is dying, and possibly a new kind of treatment can save him. The stories, like the Irish that Tóibín writes about, roam around the world. Some coming home for the first time, some leaving for good, and some in exile.

There are few authors me Mum and I share, and Colm Tóibín is one of them. I enjoy his historical works, and his essays, my Mum the stories about the Websters, and the plucky families he writes about. The themes in these stories are mostly about family. The responsibility we owe them, going on after disgracing them, finding them when they were thought lost. Tóibín is a very good writer able to capture place and time in his writing, the simple act of getting a train in World War I Ireland, setting sail on a voyage in the sixties, or even booking a bike pass in the city of Barcelona. Tóibín puts the reader in the moment, sharing the pain, the victory and the simple moments. Faking ashes on a forehead, the shame of finishing a meal, while the Internet crowd judges.

This is a great introduction to readers who might not know the works of Tóibín, or only know him as the guy who wrote some books they made movies out of. Strong writing, strong sense of place, and strong ideas and moments that stay with a reader are what I think of when I think of Tóibín. This one is a perfect example, a collection that will make one think, wonder and want more of.

[Amalia Gkavea · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘’She remembered an unusual silence that morning - a stillness in the trees and in the farmyard, and a deadness in the house itself, no sounds from the kitchen, and no one moving up and down the stairs.’’

A woman has to travel to Galway to break the news of her son’s death to his wife. Another woman receives a visitor who sends her mind back to the days of the Spanish Civil War and her romance with one of Franco’s officers. An Irishman has to leave San Francisco and his daughter after 30 years because a new law has deemed him an ‘alien’. Men contemplate the fragility of a love still not fully accepted by society. A teacher travels to Dublin to seek a meeting that will supposedly help put an end to the nightmare of tuberculosis.

A young boy’s wish for freedom leads him to commit a crime, and the consequences might be dire. A man from Ireland believes Barcelona will provide a safe cocoon to protect him from the crimes he has committed, seeking a new life, a clean slate. In the longest story of the collection, a woman finds herself locked inside her house and narrates her life in the company of her sisters, who sought a better life in Argentina, leaving Catalonia behind. I am afraid this one was so bad that I had to subtract a star from my rating. I don’t have the patience or the sympathy to read 50+ pages about women who think the only aim in life is finding a man (married or single, it doesn’t really matter…)

In Colm Tóibín’s familiar style, these are stories of mothers who lose their sons, lovers whose past returns in strange ways, fathers who are ordered to destroy their lives for reasons no one seems to know, boys whose noble motives lead them to questionable choices. Two complaints: Too much focus on sexuality, and the last story (which went on and on) is essentially a soap opera.

Tóibín’s The Testament of Mary, House of Names, and The Blackwater Lightship are among my favourite books. On the other hand, Brooklyn was a nightmare. This collection is rich, layered and written in lyrical yet direct language. However, for me, it lacks the strength of his novels.

‘’It is strange how much unwitting effort it has taken to bring us here. The engineers and software designers could never have guessed, as they laid out their strategies and sought investment, that the thing they were making - the internet - would cause two strangers to meet, and then, after a time, to lie in the half-light of morning, holding each other.’’

Many thanks to Picador and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.word...

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many thanks to Colm Toibin, NetGalley, and the publisher, Picador, for a digital ARC of this powerful book, which was released in the UK and Ireland yesterday.

The News from Dublin is Colm Toibin’s first collection of short stories since The Empty Family in 2010, although some of the stories included have previously been published in magazines and anthologies. The stories vary in setting (taking place in Spain, Ireland, the US and Argentina), in length (from just a few pages to over a hundred), and in terms of their themes. They range from an unnamed woman (clearly based on Lady Gregory) mourning her son’s death; to a young boy whose parents no longer have money, and who starts stealing from others at his boarding school; to a brother asked to go to Dublin to find medicine for his brother, who is dying of TB. What they do have in common is Tobin’s characteristic understated, melancholy style, and a mode of thinking shared by all his characters where they’re reflective, not impulsive - although they are capable of making quick decisions when necessary.

Some of his characters can also seem passive or a little removed from life. Paul in “Five Bridges” has spent almost 30 years in the states as an undocumented Irish immigrant, and he’s never fully put down roots - he keeps almost all his money in socks in his room, for instance; while the narrator in ‘Sleep’ has night terrors, but has never thought of doing anything about them until confronted by his boyfriend. Meanwhile, Maria in ‘The Catalan Girls’ is dreamy and seems to fall into various situations in her life, and only makes a definite decision towards the end of this novella-length story. The exception to all this passivity is Maria’s eldest sister, Nadia, supremely selfish and rude, but a woman who Gets Things Done.

I’ve always thought that Toibin’s stories were less powerful than his novels, but reading this book has changed my mind. They’ve lingered with me over the past two weeks, and they’ll stay for a while longer too. My favourites were ‘Summer of ‘38’, ‘The News from Dublin’ and ‘Five Bridges’, but there isn’t a weak story in this collection. If you’re a fan of Toibin, you’ll love this, and if you’ve never read anything by him, this would be a good introduction to his work.

[Books By Your Bedside · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Picador for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

Whilst I do own a couple of Colm's books, I've only recently read any, starting with A Long Winter. But I'll definitely be picking up his others soon.

I was never a short story fan, always thinking they were a bit pointless, not enough to get your teeth into and so I tended to steer clear. But I've recently enjoyed a number of them, and combined with Colm's talents, it was surely a win-win.

There is no denying his talent for storytelling, especially when writing about normality. The characters are very real and familiar and sometimes a bit boring (not a negative), doing normal things. Whilst some parts are exaggerated, it is mostly real and recognisable an familiar, and he makes the everyday sound so special.

The stories don't seem to be linked in the sense of using the same world or characters, but they do all link with family and loss and grief and longing.

Some stories I liked more than others, which is quite normal when it comes to a collection of stories. I have picked out a few standout ones below:

The Journey to Galway: This was a short but beautiful opening story set during WW1. In just a few pages he has given us an all-too-familiar story of grief, with really human characters and I could feel myself going through what they were. I would be quite happy if he made this into a full-length novel.

Summer of '38: I liked this one but it was very different to how I felt about the first story. It's still related to war, but this gives us a look at a view we might not have considered during wartime.

Barton Springs: This one was particularly short. It is full of intrigue and mysterious characters and I'd have liked a bit more. I'm all for a bit of ambiguity but I wanted a little more meat to it.

A Sum of Money: I really enjoyed this one and I wish it had been a little longer, or that Colm expanded it into a longer standalone story. It felt a bit different to the others, there was almost a thrillery mystery vibe to it. There's secrets and lies at every corner and I was really invested.

A Free Man: This one was interesting. It could have been quite unsavoury - and there are unsavoury elements - but for me, it is mostly about redemption, second changes, about humanity and accepting help.

[Bookish Tokyo · Rating 3 out of 5]

“If they saw you coming along the street, they'd deport you on the spot. You look illegal. There's nothing can be done about it. Why don't you get married? Why else do we have Americans, for God's sake? What else are they for? I could even find you a fellow who would marry you. For your rugged looks and all that.'”
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The joy, or perhaps the sadness, in reading is that it acts like a mirror onto one’s own life. You read a sentence, a paragraph, a story and feel that sensation that someone has so artfully reflected your life in a literary moment. Although not exactly a mirroring, I could relate to a story in which an Irish migrant has to come to terms with moving back to Ireland after decades in America. The specter of ICE lurks in the background as he grapples with having to move into his childhood bedroom. We live our lives with our birth countries preserved in historic aspic. I wonder myself what would happen if I suddenly had to return. A new life to relearn and understand.
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All of these stories have a sense of change, turning points and endings in a varied collection of settings, from prison to Argentina and America. There is much sadness here, an emotion that I find myself drawn to in reading, but here it did feel somewhat unrelenting. Stories seemed to drift casually onto the page and casually end in a similar way. I did not mind that stories had no clear ending; such is life, I suppose. We are fortunate to be given a vantage point to peer into the well of life.
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Toibin writes in such an uncluttered way. There is no space here for overly purple prose, but occasionally there are sentences of sheer melancholic-tinged beauty. This is not a cheery book by any means, and I found some stories better than others. In a similarly morose way it did remind me of James Joyce’s excellent Dubliners, a comparison I’m reluctant to make because there is a tendency to compare all contemporary Irish literature to past writers. However, both collections had a deep layer of melancholy. Ultimately though, News from Elsewhere was a bit too bleak for my tastes.
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With thanks to Picador and the literary matchmaker Netgalley.

[Carole Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A haunting collection of character-driven short stories

A mother who receives the news that her son has been killed while serving his country during the war must break the news to his wife even as she struggles to come to terms with the devastating information. A man recently released from prison arrives in Barcelona, hoping he has left behind in Ireland the stigma of the crimes he committed. A man whose family prevails upon him to travel to Dublin and trade on a past relationship to secure access to a new drug to save the life of his gravely ill brother. A gay man whose relationship with a younger lover is tried when grief over his brother's death overwhelms him. A man who overstayed his visitor's visa in the US must return to Ireland, leaving behind his daughter. A collection of these and other stories which touch upon themes of identity, sexuality, family, and loss.
In this collection of short stories, author Colm Toíbín's ability to craft tales that are honest and emotional, melancholic but powerful is applied to the short story format with great success. The prose is understated, yet displays the characters and their vulnerabilities to the reader with masterful precision. History weighs on the present, and those who have left their home country deal with their sense of displacement. The characters are nuanced, flawed, not always likable yet the reader would be hard put not to empathize with them as their stories unfold. A very Irish book, not for those looking for light and happy but so beautifully done. Short stories aren't always my favorite, but Mr. Toíbín has crafted each tale so that it is the perfect length for what he wants to convey (although I found myself wishing each would continue so that I could see what happened to the characters next).. Fans of the author's previous novels, lovers of literary fiction as well as readers of William Trevor, Claire Keegan and John Banville should not miss this haunting compilation from an exceptional writer. My thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for granting me access to the novel in exchange for my honest review.

[GP Hyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

These short stories are written in the grand tradition of James Joyce and Anton Chekov. There’s a lot we’re not told about the characters as they struggle with challenges of grief, love, life and death. So they require close reading to distill the events and relationships out of the text. They’re not a quick read.

They span most of the 20th century. ‘The Journey to Galway’ shows the grieving journey of a mother to tell her son’s wife of his death in WW1. In ‘A Free Man’, a released prisoner begins a new life in Barcelona, realising he needs a mobile phone and laptop to be able to function. In the eponymous story, Maurice goes to lobby in the Dail for the Minister of Health to provide a new drug to ward off the tuberculosis that his younger brother is suffering with. However, there is no solution. Stephen will continue to suffer with TB and Maurice continues to be a school master with an on-off relationship with Catholicism. As in all the stories, there is no resolution to these characters’ predicaments.

60% of this book comprises 8 short stories and the final section consists of a novella, ‘The Catalan Girls’. I found the short stories to be eloquent accounts of Irish people often struggling with the deep cultures of Ireland’s struggles and the Catholic religion. Some of the stories show how the narrators are abroad either drawn back to the motherland or fleeing to begin a new life. The novella I found to be quite dull and long-winded. Barton Springs works brilliantly at 5 pages long and I wondered why the author devoted 40% of the book to a never-ending account of three sisters and their lifelong relationships. The dull novella is why I’ve gone for a 4-star rating.

So if you enjoy short stories with satisfying endings and clear resolutions, then this collection may not be for you. But if you want to read beautifully and eloquently enunciated accounts of the emotions and inner struggles of dealing with grief and love, then this will be a great read

[Pudsey Recommends · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’ve ever read Brooklyn or Long Island, you know that Colm Tóibín doesn’t do "loud." He does the quiet, vibrating space between people, the things we don’t say because we’re too proud, too scared, or just too Irish.

The News from Dublin is a gorgeous, quietly devastating collection of stories that move from the streets of Enniscorthy to the shadows of Barcelona and the hills of San Francisco. It’s all about people living at a distance: from their homes, their past selves, and the lives they thought they were going to have.

Tóibín has this steady, attentive gaze that never feels like it's judging the characters, even when they’re being difficult or unlikeable. The pace is unhurried. You can practically smell the tea in the Dáil bar or the damp air on the railway bridge in Wexford.

The title story, "The News from Dublin," really got to me. It’s about a man named Maurice traveling to Dublin to beg a Minister for a new TB drug for his brother. The scene where they’re sitting in a corner table, drinking tea while the Minister basically says "nothing we can do," is just crushing. It’s that specific kind of bureaucratic coldness wrapped in a polite "give your father my best." The image of Maurice walking home from the train station, feeling a "ghost trailing behind him" because he has no good news to bring? Oof.

The "Sleep" was absolute favorite.As with most collections, there were some stories I loved more than others, but the writing is consistently stunning. It’s a book about the burdens we carry: loss, fear, and that nagging desire for hope even when things look bleak.

Huge thanks to panmacmilan and bookbreak for the advance copy!

Go grab a copy if you're in the mood for some top-tier, introspective storytelling.

#pudseyrecommends

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*
The News From Dublin is a collection of short stories from acclaimed writer, Colm Tóibín. The stories range in historical periods, from the First World War, to the Spanish Civil War, to the present day. The themes range from analysing family dynamics, homesickness, grief and loss. Amongst some of the stand-out stories, is the first “The Journey to Galway” which deals with the aftermath of a soldier’s death in the Great War, “Barton Springs” which navigates the life of an undocumented Irish migrant in America after Trump’s re-election, and the last, and longest, “The Catalan Girls” which delves into the sisterly dynamics of three girls as they move from Spain to Argentina and then back to their home place of Catalonia.

It is in this final story that Tóibín’s master storytelling comes to the fold and proves that characterisation is his strong-point. “The Free Man” has a controversial main character, which I won’t get into to avoid spoilers, also has a similar impact. No matter how detesting his characters are, his visceral, yet casual, writing style leaves the reader on the edge of their seat.

These stories are well written and are an excellent addition to Tóibín’s work. However, as seen with the final story, Tóibín shines when writing longer material, and some stories I felt needed to be fleshed out more. Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed this collection. Fans of Brooklyn will enjoy “The Catalan Girls” and “Barton Springs” especially.

Thank you so much to Pan MacMillan and Picador Press for a proof edition of this book to read!

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

They were all themselves, living in their own minds, just as Stephen now was living in his and dreading his own extinction, the great change beyond imagining, which nobody knew about for sure, no matter how strong their faith was, no matter how hard they prayed. from The News from Dublin by Colm Toibin

Reviewing a collection of short stories is a challenge, especially a diverse collection. I have decided to focus on just one story, Five Bridges.

The Irish Paul has been in America illegally for 30 years on a tourist visa, supporting himself as a plumber, his customers coming by word of mouth and paying him in cash. Paul was never worried about his status before, nor has he been interested in marrying to stay. He has decided to return to Dublin before ICE catches up with him.

He has reconnected to his daughter who lives with her mother and step father. Before he leaves, his daughter has asked that he accompany her family on a hike that he family enjoys taking. From the mountain you can see five bridges.

He is simply spending time with his daughter, knowing he can never return, hoping she will visit him. He considers his narrow life in America, the many people and houses he had been in over the years.

Toibin offers his story without pathos or melodrama, yet he moves us. We feel Paul’s loneliness, how he never truly made himself a home, how ephemeral his life has been.

Colm Toibin is true master.

Thanks to Scribner for a free book through NetGalley.

[Kath · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not usually a big reader of short stories, unless they are "inbetweenies" in series that I read. I usually find that they don't suit my style of reading. I am a fast reader and prefer stories to get on with themselves rather than sitting back and savouring each precious word.
But, that said, I thought I'd give this a whirl as I have been wanting to "try" this author for a wee while now. And I was in the right place to slow my reading right down and give them the attention they deserved. I also didn't read start to finish in one go. I snuck one in every so often during my "other reading".
And I was pleasantly surprised with the results.
As with other collections, there were stories that I found stronger than others. Although, that said, each did give me something to connect to, to emote with, and I found that once I had finished the last one, I was actually sad that it was all over.
I think, if I have to pick a favourite, it would be the opener - The Journey to Galway. Not a long story but it sure packed a punch.
The others were a bit hit and miss. I think maybe I missed the point with some - as I often do with shot stories, and with others, I simply wanted more. They are also quite sad in overall feeling too, containing characters who you might even keep thinking about long after you turn the final page.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

[Annette Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The News from Dublin is a beautiful short story collection that demonstrates Colm Tóibín's mastery of his craft. In this collection we travel from Galway to Argentina and several places in between in stories that range from just a few pages to novella length. As with any collection some stories resonated more strongly than others and for me the one that had most impact and felt most relevant was Five Bridges, about a man who immigrated to the USA legally and now faces leaving his daughter behind as he moves back to Ireland, but I also enjoyed Barton Springs and the titular story. As he so often does the author depicts ordinary people and day to day life but in a way that is so beautifully descriptive and evocative. Though the settings and characters are diverse there does seem to be a theme in that we meet them at a moment of change and I will say that many of the stories feel unresolved which might irk some readers but I did not mind, in fact I liked the feeling of seeing a glimpse into somebody else's world. Bleak but beautiful, I found myself thinking about several of the stories in the days after reading.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

[Denis Wheller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories, the first seven of which have been published previously. A pedant might note that the ninth is novella length. There is no obvious common theme, a few are war related but not war stories, a few have homosexual main characters but are not sexual stories, a few include criminal activities but are not crime stories. They range in time from 1917 to now, they range widely in place; Ireland, USA, Spain, Argentina. It seems to me that they all have an air of melancholy, or perhaps pensiveness. With the exception of the novella length story “The Catalan Girls”, they tend to focus on a short episode which provokes memories of a longer backstory. This can give the feeling that they are prologues, or opening chapters, for novels yet to be written. The use of language is, of course, excellent in all cases, but the stories are variable; some are three star where others are obvious 5 stars – so 4 overall seems fair.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

[Rosalind · Rating 3 out of 5]

🇮🇪"The News From Dublin" by Colm Toibin🇪🇸

Thank you to @netgalley for this ARC of Colm Toibin's latest collection of short stories, due to be released in March.

Set in Ireland, the US, Argentina and Spain, the theme running through most of these stories is of a need to return home, whether reluctantly or willingly.

Toibin writes with his typical sparseness, with very little description or imagery - and yet, somehow he draws the reader in with how realistically and vividly he captures ordinary humanity.

The story I enjoyed the most was the last and longest one: 'The Catalan Girls'. A tale of three sisters, whose widowed mother takes them from Spain to Argentina when they are still children. Toibin somehow manages to write from a woman's perspective in as convincing a manner as any woman writer.

As is often the case with short stories, the ending of each one is anti-climatic and I always think they need at least one more reading to really 'get' it.

But, if you've enjoyed Toibin's other work, I think you'll enjoy these stories too.

#colmtóibín #thenewsfromdublin #arc #netgalley

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Publication Date: March 31, 2026

The News from Dublin: Stories is the latest book of short stories from one of the stunning Irish authors writing today. This collection is notable for its sharp, quiet and empathetic portrayal of Irish life as these characters are immersed in complex family dynamics and the pull of the past in Ireland. These stories are far reaching across Ireland, Spain, Argentina and America and each in their own way, are achingly beautiful. But the connecting thread throughout these stories is some tie to Dublin and how that impacts these lives.

This is a collection of nine short stories. And I must say the most poignant was A Free Man about an Irish seminarian and schoolteacher convicted of sexual abuse relocating to Barcelona after serving his prison term. This is a beautiful and unsettling piece of literature that just shakes one to the core. And In the Journey to Galway details a woman telling of her painful recollections and losses in the war. There is a quiet humanity and beauty in this fabulous new collection as Colm Toibin’s stories are rich with complex family dynamics, and the haunting pull of the past. This collection of short stories are rich with empathy and insight.

My thanks to Simon & Schuster, Colm Toibin, and Net Galley for an advanced readers copy.