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The News from Dublin: Stories
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).
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).
1 pages, Audio CD
First published March 31, 2026
About the author
Colm Tóibín
236 books5,687 followersColm 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 301 reviews
May 3, 2026
In a Nutshell: A literary short-story collection by the acclaimed Irish writer. Interesting variety of characters and situations. A bit haphazard in plot development. Flat in character development. Bleak. Feels very lengthy because of the slow pacing and meandering structure. Disappointing endings at times. Didn’t work much for me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This collection comprises nine stories, a few of which have been published before in other publications. The stories are set across multiple countries, Ireland included.
I had grabbed this collection mainly for two reasons. One, I have enjoyed a majority of the literary works written by contemporary Irish writers and want to explore more Irish fiction. Two, I liked one short story written by this author for Amazon Original Stories. (‘The Shortest Day’) However, this collection just wasn’t for me.
For one, the 300 pages seem endless as each story is terribly slow and hence feels fairly lengthy even if it might not be so. The first eight stories take up about 60% of the book, with the final entry being a novella.
I don’t mind lengthy stories as long as they have a clear structure. In this collection, most stories felt like they were meandering in arbitrary directions instead of moving steadily towards a clear end-goal. The haphazard development in a majority of the stories made me struggle to continue reading. I had to push myself to reach the finish line as I kept zoning out. At times, it was even tough to remember where a story began because the ending went somewhere else entirely.
To my disappointment, there is no foreword or author’s note introducing any theme for this collection. The blurb also makes it clear that there’s nothing tying these stories together except for the author. This also affected my experience. When I read collections, I prefer the set to be connected in some way, whether through the genre or a theme. Simply collecting random character-oriented stories in a book doesn’t make the whole thing come together to offer a unified reading experience.
The prose is superlative, no denying that. The description of the places demonstrates the author’s writing skills. The stories have a fair mix of first-person and third-person perspectives, and come through male as well as female characters. So at least there’s no feeling of déjà vu even in the rambling. That said, the dominant mood is of grief and bleakness and the humans are mostly shallow. This didn’t make my journey easy.
As always, I rated the stories individually, but except for the first entry, the stories didn’t click that much for me. The first story, titled ‘The Journey to Galway’, was a five-star reading experience with a brilliant depiction of a mother’s turmoil in the face of a tragedy without going melodramatic. The only other story that came close to the top rating was ‘Summer of ’38’, a good take on the choices one makes in life; I gave this four stars. The rest of the set earned three stars or lower. A couple of the stories (‘A Free Man‘ and ‘A Sum of Money’) would have easily crossed the four star mark had they offered more satisfying endings. The final story, ‘The Catalina Girls’, also had great potential, but by then, I was so gloomy from the depressing stories that the thought of reading 40% of the book just for one story came in the way of my concentration. I might retry this story again in future when I am in better spirits.
I love the cover. It stands out amid the clutter of similar-looking covers.
Overall, this collection didn’t go as well as I hoped it would. I anticipated an enriching set of characters facing complex emotions, but only the first, the second, and to some extent, the last story, delivered on this potential. Had this book been by some other author (of some other nationality), I might even have DNFed it. But I kept hoping for a story that would mirror that magnificent first-story experience and it never happened.
Some authors work better in longer narrations, so I might still try a novel by this author someday. But my curiosity about his short stories ends here.
Those who are of a more literary bent of mind might enjoy this collection better. But without a central theme or genre, I find it tough to figure out which set of readers to recommend this to.
2.1 stars, based on the average of my ratings for each story.
My thanks to Scribner for providing the DRC of “The News from Dublin” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I follow the Goodreads rating policy:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Lifelong favourite!
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I loved the book.
⭐⭐⭐ - I liked the book.
⭐⭐ - I found the book average.
⭐ - I hated the book.
The decimals indicate the degree of the in-between feelings.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || Facebook ||
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This collection comprises nine stories, a few of which have been published before in other publications. The stories are set across multiple countries, Ireland included.
I had grabbed this collection mainly for two reasons. One, I have enjoyed a majority of the literary works written by contemporary Irish writers and want to explore more Irish fiction. Two, I liked one short story written by this author for Amazon Original Stories. (‘The Shortest Day’) However, this collection just wasn’t for me.
For one, the 300 pages seem endless as each story is terribly slow and hence feels fairly lengthy even if it might not be so. The first eight stories take up about 60% of the book, with the final entry being a novella.
I don’t mind lengthy stories as long as they have a clear structure. In this collection, most stories felt like they were meandering in arbitrary directions instead of moving steadily towards a clear end-goal. The haphazard development in a majority of the stories made me struggle to continue reading. I had to push myself to reach the finish line as I kept zoning out. At times, it was even tough to remember where a story began because the ending went somewhere else entirely.
To my disappointment, there is no foreword or author’s note introducing any theme for this collection. The blurb also makes it clear that there’s nothing tying these stories together except for the author. This also affected my experience. When I read collections, I prefer the set to be connected in some way, whether through the genre or a theme. Simply collecting random character-oriented stories in a book doesn’t make the whole thing come together to offer a unified reading experience.
The prose is superlative, no denying that. The description of the places demonstrates the author’s writing skills. The stories have a fair mix of first-person and third-person perspectives, and come through male as well as female characters. So at least there’s no feeling of déjà vu even in the rambling. That said, the dominant mood is of grief and bleakness and the humans are mostly shallow. This didn’t make my journey easy.
As always, I rated the stories individually, but except for the first entry, the stories didn’t click that much for me. The first story, titled ‘The Journey to Galway’, was a five-star reading experience with a brilliant depiction of a mother’s turmoil in the face of a tragedy without going melodramatic. The only other story that came close to the top rating was ‘Summer of ’38’, a good take on the choices one makes in life; I gave this four stars. The rest of the set earned three stars or lower. A couple of the stories (‘A Free Man‘ and ‘A Sum of Money’) would have easily crossed the four star mark had they offered more satisfying endings. The final story, ‘The Catalina Girls’, also had great potential, but by then, I was so gloomy from the depressing stories that the thought of reading 40% of the book just for one story came in the way of my concentration. I might retry this story again in future when I am in better spirits.
I love the cover. It stands out amid the clutter of similar-looking covers.
Overall, this collection didn’t go as well as I hoped it would. I anticipated an enriching set of characters facing complex emotions, but only the first, the second, and to some extent, the last story, delivered on this potential. Had this book been by some other author (of some other nationality), I might even have DNFed it. But I kept hoping for a story that would mirror that magnificent first-story experience and it never happened.
Some authors work better in longer narrations, so I might still try a novel by this author someday. But my curiosity about his short stories ends here.
Those who are of a more literary bent of mind might enjoy this collection better. But without a central theme or genre, I find it tough to figure out which set of readers to recommend this to.
2.1 stars, based on the average of my ratings for each story.
My thanks to Scribner for providing the DRC of “The News from Dublin” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I follow the Goodreads rating policy:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Lifelong favourite!
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I loved the book.
⭐⭐⭐ - I liked the book.
⭐⭐ - I found the book average.
⭐ - I hated the book.
The decimals indicate the degree of the in-between feelings.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || Facebook ||
December 31, 2025
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.
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.
January 20, 2026
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.
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.
April 14, 2026
Some Things Left Unsaid...
In the deeply moving collection “The News from Dublin,” Colm Tóibín demonstrates his exceptional skill through nine short stories characterized by an unadorned and melancholy style. By deftly utilizing restraint and withholding specific details, Tóibín creates a powerful emotional resonance within the narrative's negative space.
Tied together by characters grappling with doubt and transition, these narratives move through settings in Argentina, Spain, Ireland, and the United States. Tóibín focuses on the psychological weight of fear, loss, and grief, examining the dynamics of love, longing, and family through the eyes of those living abroad. His subtle style prioritizes internal reflection over direct confrontation, a technique that heightens the story's inherent tension.
Within this collection, Colm Tóibín consistently employs a strategy of restraint by eschewing explicit final confrontations, suggesting that direct description is not always necessary for emotional resolution. This technique is notably evident in ‘The Journey to Galway,’ a moving story about a mother tasked with informing her widowed daughter-in-law of her son's death in war. Similarly, ‘A Sum of Money’ builds significant tension as it follows a student who has stolen funds, culminating in an anticipated parental meeting that remains unwritten. Perhaps the most powerful example is ‘Five Bridges,’ which depicts an undocumented worker in the U.S. returning to Ireland after an anti-immigrant president is elected, a choice that implies a lasting break from his young daughter. By leaving such pivotal moments unspoken, the narratives heighten the psychological impact of the characters' experiences.
Although 'The Catalan Girls'-- by far the longest of the entries– feels somewhat sluggish and seemingly lacks character development, it remains an outlier in an otherwise strong volume. As is typical of Colm Tóibín’s work, “The News from Dublin” features stories that are elegantly phrased and expertly crafted and stands as a powerful testament to Tóibín’s capacity for eliciting deep emotional impact.
Thank you to Scribner, Edelweiss Plus, and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
In the deeply moving collection “The News from Dublin,” Colm Tóibín demonstrates his exceptional skill through nine short stories characterized by an unadorned and melancholy style. By deftly utilizing restraint and withholding specific details, Tóibín creates a powerful emotional resonance within the narrative's negative space.
Tied together by characters grappling with doubt and transition, these narratives move through settings in Argentina, Spain, Ireland, and the United States. Tóibín focuses on the psychological weight of fear, loss, and grief, examining the dynamics of love, longing, and family through the eyes of those living abroad. His subtle style prioritizes internal reflection over direct confrontation, a technique that heightens the story's inherent tension.
Within this collection, Colm Tóibín consistently employs a strategy of restraint by eschewing explicit final confrontations, suggesting that direct description is not always necessary for emotional resolution. This technique is notably evident in ‘The Journey to Galway,’ a moving story about a mother tasked with informing her widowed daughter-in-law of her son's death in war. Similarly, ‘A Sum of Money’ builds significant tension as it follows a student who has stolen funds, culminating in an anticipated parental meeting that remains unwritten. Perhaps the most powerful example is ‘Five Bridges,’ which depicts an undocumented worker in the U.S. returning to Ireland after an anti-immigrant president is elected, a choice that implies a lasting break from his young daughter. By leaving such pivotal moments unspoken, the narratives heighten the psychological impact of the characters' experiences.
Although 'The Catalan Girls'-- by far the longest of the entries– feels somewhat sluggish and seemingly lacks character development, it remains an outlier in an otherwise strong volume. As is typical of Colm Tóibín’s work, “The News from Dublin” features stories that are elegantly phrased and expertly crafted and stands as a powerful testament to Tóibín’s capacity for eliciting deep emotional impact.
Thank you to Scribner, Edelweiss Plus, and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
December 29, 2025
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.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publishers for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
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.
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.
June 2, 2026
The News From Dublin is a collection of nine stories by award-winning, bestselling Irish author, Colm Toibin. The stories vary in length from five pages to ninety-six pages, but each has the hallmark of a writer appointed Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024.
In Journey To Galway, it is decided that his mother is the person most appropriate to deliver to his wife the telegram announcing the death of fighter pilot, Robert, during a war fought in a British uniform. Is their grief tempered by his poor behaviour?
In Summer of ’38, in the Pyrenees village of Sort, widowed Marta is alerted by her youngest daughter that a man from the electric company wants to talk to her. He is charting the events of the war in their valley, and hopes she will lunch with a retired General who remembers her from the summer of ’38. She manages to sidestep the lunch by insisting on a visit from her eldest daughter, delighting in the near-miss proximity of father and daughter who have never, and will never, meet.
In Five Bridges, after thirty years in California on a tourist visa, Paul, now almost fifty, works as a talented but unlicensed plumber. When the new POTUS touts draconian immigration laws, he understands he will need to return to Ireland, leaving behind a twelve-year-old daughter whom, he hopes, her mother (his now-married ex-girlfriend) will allow to visit Dublin. It’s clear he will never be able to return.
In Sleep, an Irish New Yorker is told by his Jewish lover that his disturbed sleep is a deal-breaker for their relationship. The younger man suggests that, until he sees a therapist, advisedly Irish, they need to take a break. It requires a trip to Dublin.
In The News From Dublin, when a radical new treatment for TB is mentioned in The Irish Times, high-school teacher Maurice is asked to go to Dublin on behalf of his quickly-deteriorating younger brother. Their father having been in Frongoch prison with the now Minister for Health, the family feels this will give him some leverage to fast-track treatment. The family hopes the news from Dublin will be favourable.
In Barton Springs, a man traveling to Austin, Texas recalls an encounter at a swimming pool soon after his brother’s death, and vows he and his companion will revisit the place of their meeting.
In A Sum Of Money, having watched his father open a lockbox without a key, Dan decides this knowledge will be handy when he returns to boarding school. He’s only there by the grace of his Liverpool uncle, his family being very poor farmers with no cash to spare for pocket money. He carefully and successfully steals from fellow students until one day he gets greedy.
In A Free Man, after ten years in Arbour Hill prison, a high-school maths teacher is finally free and quits Ireland to live in Barcelona. His family severed all ties because of the nature of his crime, and he chooses Barcelona because another man who quit the same seminary years earlier and didn’t reject him outright, has settled there. Denis offers him a few pointers, but Joe makes every effort to stay under the radar, especially of Irish tourists. Is he safe, though?
In The Catalan Girls, fifty years after their mother brought them to Argentina, Montse and her older sisters learn of the death of a family member and travel back to the Catalan village where their mother grew up. And while Nuria and Conxita have satisfactory lives in Argentina, Montse is happy to leave, but doesn’t share her intention not to return until they have been in the Pyrenees for some time.
Toibin is another author who writes the everyday moments of ordinary life exceptionally well. This is a collection of beautifully told tales that often leave the reader wanting more.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Pan Macmillan Picador.
In Journey To Galway, it is decided that his mother is the person most appropriate to deliver to his wife the telegram announcing the death of fighter pilot, Robert, during a war fought in a British uniform. Is their grief tempered by his poor behaviour?
In Summer of ’38, in the Pyrenees village of Sort, widowed Marta is alerted by her youngest daughter that a man from the electric company wants to talk to her. He is charting the events of the war in their valley, and hopes she will lunch with a retired General who remembers her from the summer of ’38. She manages to sidestep the lunch by insisting on a visit from her eldest daughter, delighting in the near-miss proximity of father and daughter who have never, and will never, meet.
In Five Bridges, after thirty years in California on a tourist visa, Paul, now almost fifty, works as a talented but unlicensed plumber. When the new POTUS touts draconian immigration laws, he understands he will need to return to Ireland, leaving behind a twelve-year-old daughter whom, he hopes, her mother (his now-married ex-girlfriend) will allow to visit Dublin. It’s clear he will never be able to return.
In Sleep, an Irish New Yorker is told by his Jewish lover that his disturbed sleep is a deal-breaker for their relationship. The younger man suggests that, until he sees a therapist, advisedly Irish, they need to take a break. It requires a trip to Dublin.
In The News From Dublin, when a radical new treatment for TB is mentioned in The Irish Times, high-school teacher Maurice is asked to go to Dublin on behalf of his quickly-deteriorating younger brother. Their father having been in Frongoch prison with the now Minister for Health, the family feels this will give him some leverage to fast-track treatment. The family hopes the news from Dublin will be favourable.
In Barton Springs, a man traveling to Austin, Texas recalls an encounter at a swimming pool soon after his brother’s death, and vows he and his companion will revisit the place of their meeting.
In A Sum Of Money, having watched his father open a lockbox without a key, Dan decides this knowledge will be handy when he returns to boarding school. He’s only there by the grace of his Liverpool uncle, his family being very poor farmers with no cash to spare for pocket money. He carefully and successfully steals from fellow students until one day he gets greedy.
In A Free Man, after ten years in Arbour Hill prison, a high-school maths teacher is finally free and quits Ireland to live in Barcelona. His family severed all ties because of the nature of his crime, and he chooses Barcelona because another man who quit the same seminary years earlier and didn’t reject him outright, has settled there. Denis offers him a few pointers, but Joe makes every effort to stay under the radar, especially of Irish tourists. Is he safe, though?
In The Catalan Girls, fifty years after their mother brought them to Argentina, Montse and her older sisters learn of the death of a family member and travel back to the Catalan village where their mother grew up. And while Nuria and Conxita have satisfactory lives in Argentina, Montse is happy to leave, but doesn’t share her intention not to return until they have been in the Pyrenees for some time.
Toibin is another author who writes the everyday moments of ordinary life exceptionally well. This is a collection of beautifully told tales that often leave the reader wanting more.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Pan Macmillan Picador.
May 11, 2026
3.5. I just can't get to 4.
Exquisitely written as only Tóibín can and yet these stories felt largely distant and dispassionate to me. There was a sense of observing through a glass darkly, with meaning and emotion obscured by a deliberate pushing away of the self from any connection to what was unfolding within. The final story, The Catalan Girls, is nearly a novella, taking up a third of the collection's space, and is utterly dispiriting. It follows the lifespan of three sisters who flee Spain for Argentina as young girls with their widowed mother and return to Catalonia as women in their sixties to claim the inheritance of an aunt they haven't seen in all the intervening decades. None is likable and it all just seems very sad and without consequence.
Stories that did resonate were the melancholy and morally ambiguous A Free Man, about an Irish schoolteacher convicted of sexual abuse who relocates to Barcelona immediately upon release from prison, and A Sum of Money, about a boy who steals from his boarding schoolmates and is sent home in disgrace. Five Bridges, the story of an Irishman who overstayed his tourist visit by three decades and is finally leaving just as he's getting to know his preteen daughter, almost gets there, but it was hard to muster empathy for a character who never seemed that happy in America and now feels forced to leave.
What I love most about Colm Tóibín is the way he leaves so much unsaid, how he writes white spaces into his stories. So it's ironic that I come away from reading this collection with a sense that something essential is missing. Warmth. Humanity. Connection. These stories are beautifully written, but perhaps too existential and cool to the touch for me.
Exquisitely written as only Tóibín can and yet these stories felt largely distant and dispassionate to me. There was a sense of observing through a glass darkly, with meaning and emotion obscured by a deliberate pushing away of the self from any connection to what was unfolding within. The final story, The Catalan Girls, is nearly a novella, taking up a third of the collection's space, and is utterly dispiriting. It follows the lifespan of three sisters who flee Spain for Argentina as young girls with their widowed mother and return to Catalonia as women in their sixties to claim the inheritance of an aunt they haven't seen in all the intervening decades. None is likable and it all just seems very sad and without consequence.
Stories that did resonate were the melancholy and morally ambiguous A Free Man, about an Irish schoolteacher convicted of sexual abuse who relocates to Barcelona immediately upon release from prison, and A Sum of Money, about a boy who steals from his boarding schoolmates and is sent home in disgrace. Five Bridges, the story of an Irishman who overstayed his tourist visit by three decades and is finally leaving just as he's getting to know his preteen daughter, almost gets there, but it was hard to muster empathy for a character who never seemed that happy in America and now feels forced to leave.
What I love most about Colm Tóibín is the way he leaves so much unsaid, how he writes white spaces into his stories. So it's ironic that I come away from reading this collection with a sense that something essential is missing. Warmth. Humanity. Connection. These stories are beautifully written, but perhaps too existential and cool to the touch for me.
April 17, 2026
3.5 stars
The News from Dublin lands just a notch above my recent short story slump — less meh than Twelve Post-War Tales by Graham Swift, but still more "hmm-kay" than fully satisfying.
The voice is unmistakably Tóibín’s — restrained, observant, quietly emotional — and there are moments where that really works. But overall, nothing here quite rose up and grabbed me. The stories feel more like they passed over me, than anything like reaching up to draw me in.
It did make me wonder if Tóibín is simply a better fit for me at novel length. I loved Brooklyn, and part of me is starting to suspect that might be the outlier ... the one that clicks in a way the rest don’t.
Not a bad collection by any means, just one that never quite found its footing with me.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.
The News from Dublin lands just a notch above my recent short story slump — less meh than Twelve Post-War Tales by Graham Swift, but still more "hmm-kay" than fully satisfying.
The voice is unmistakably Tóibín’s — restrained, observant, quietly emotional — and there are moments where that really works. But overall, nothing here quite rose up and grabbed me. The stories feel more like they passed over me, than anything like reaching up to draw me in.
It did make me wonder if Tóibín is simply a better fit for me at novel length. I loved Brooklyn, and part of me is starting to suspect that might be the outlier ... the one that clicks in a way the rest don’t.
Not a bad collection by any means, just one that never quite found its footing with me.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.
May 2, 2026
Very disappointing. If it hadn't been Colm Toibin, I wouldn't have finished it.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
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.
May 5, 2026
In my opinion, this is a mixed bag of stories. Some were better than others.
Read
June 24, 2026It’s not the book; it’s me. Either I must really be in the mood for short stories or they have to wow me. These were slow.
I read this for the 2026 ToB summer camp focused on short stories.
I read this for the 2026 ToB summer camp focused on short stories.
June 18, 2026
These contemplative introspective stories are about family, love, change, estrangement, exile, loss, and grief. Most involve journeys of one sort or another. Themes include the psychological burden and toll of grief, remorse for getting caught instead of for actions, truth and lies or secrecy, hiding or pretending as to who one really is, honesty (or lack thereof) about the identity of biological parents, moral ambiguity versus personal responsibility, and the meaning of what is home or the place where one belongs. These stories are very inward-looking, often more reflections on events and actions rather than narratives of events and actions. Some almost seem memoir-like. They are restrained, reserved, understated, even when they cover uncomfortable situations or questionable moral zones. Tóibín heightens dramatic impact by using silence, space, what’s left out—making implications, leaving it to the reader to fill in the expectation.
This article in The Guardian provides information on some of Tóibín's inspirations for the stories in this collection: https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
This is the second of six short story collections for the 2026 Tournament of Books summer reading, this year focusing on short stories instead of novels. It is amazing how different these stories are from those in Brawler, in some ways more traditional and yet not. I loved both collections.
SPOILER ALERT: Given the nature of these stories I’m not sure what constitutes a spoiler, but to err on the side of caution I am warning that the following are potentially spoilery summaries and notes on each of the stories that are for my own attempts to process and retain all of these stories. If you wish to avoid spoilers, do not read them.
The Journey to Galway—The reflections of the mother of an only child, a son, after receiving a telegram that he has been killed in a burning plane in WWI, an Irishman fighting as British, as she journeys to Galway to take the telegram to her son’s wife (and 3 children), considering all the complexities of life and the son’s not-always-virtuous behavior and what kind of impact this will have going forward, from how memories of the deceased will form to the daughter-in-law’s inheritance of everything.
A Free Man—Though the subject matter of this story, pedophilia, is distasteful, this may be the most complex and intriguing story in the collection. Joe, the main character in this unsettling story leaves prison, “free” after completing his sentence for molesting teenage boy students he tutored in math, but he is surprisingly both free and not-so-free because of the stain of his crimes. He had accumulated enough money to buy an apartment in Barcelona and live there off a full teacher’s pension, but he seems to regret more the limitations on his life than the crimes he committed. This story shows that life doesn’t get back to a pre-prison state, people don’t forgive (even his family has formally disowned him) criminals (especially pedophiles) just because they have completed their sentences (no sense that the criminal has paid his debt to society and is this even possible?), and how some people may be damaged so that they are unchangeably lacking some moral and empathetic sense. Though there is no indication Joe would ever again repeat his crimes, he admits to Denis, his one acquaintance (whom he knows as a fellow seminary dropout), his remorse only for getting caught, not for what he did. Is there a sense of entitlement to not having remorse as a quid pro quo for having served the sentence but still having the lifelong stigma the criminal carries? I read or heard somewhere recently (I wish I could remember where) that people expect remorse from wrongdoers, but that it really is not that common. In this story, Joe thinks about the other child sex offenders he is in prison with and reflects that, “It might be believed that during the night they went over their crimes and considered their victims and felt shame and guilt, but as far as Joe could see, they each had a great distracting topic or obsession—as banal, say, as the excessive noise that came from the prison heating system, or the failure to provide a proper breakfast some days, or a farm they believed they had the deeds to, or the antics of a rogue solicitor, or the denial of day-release at Christmas—and that was what preoccupied them most.” People seem to be more scarred by wrongs committed against them than by those they commit against others. And what about Denis, who was always so eager to talk to Joe about religious sex offenders, was he one, had wanted to be one? There are subtle hints of Church and governmental influences and shirking of responsibility in the deep background of this story. Was Joe’s ten-year sentence served enough or just quietly brushing the problem under the rug? Nothing in this story suggests or creates any sympathy for Joe, but I found myself wondering whether Joe and Denis had been victims when they were young and this is a recurring problem that cannot get too much attention.
Sleep—A gay Irishman is amazed at his wonderful life having found, against so many odds, his Jewish American younger partner with whom he lives happily in NYC, but eventually his partner is too disturbed by the man’s troubled outbursts when they are sleeping at night and insists they must separate until the man gets “Irish help”. The man is troubled by lingering grief over his brother’s death. So the man goes back to Ireland where he sees a doctor who hypnotizes him, and during this the man feels he becomes his deceased brother as his brother is dying. The man goes back home, but doesn’t reconcile with his partner, and so doesn’t know whether he now sleeps quietly, but seems ok with this. Did he become or trade places with his dead brother? Did he decide that his partner’s insistence on treatment was unreasonable? Does the story title refer to the sleep of hypnotization, diurnal living sleep, and the permanent sleep of death?
The News From Dublin—Maurice’s family, desperate for help for the youngest brother who is suffering from TB, convince him to go from Enniscorthy to Dublin to ask a government minister with whom the family has some past contact to get them access to a miracle drug (currently being tested) before the brother dies. But the minister claims to have no access to it and cannot give them any hope, so Maurice will not be bringing home good news from Dublin. Maurice reflects that he doesn’t think prayer would help because God doesn’t address small matters and his brother’s life is a small matter to people who don’t know him (God and the minister with his God-like power?).
A Sum of Money—A poor boy is sent to a too-expensive private boarding school, but has no spending money, so succumbs to stealing money first from his mother, then from fellow students, and is expelled when caught. His only remorse seems to be for having been caught, and he seems ok with his parents not confronting him because they don’t know what to say—he seems to think this means he can just go on as if nothing happened. He seems a bit socially off. No one, parents, students, teachers, priests, confronts him. They act like he isn’t there. None of them show any cognizance of how hard it is for the impoverished child to fit in with the privileged wealthy classmates. Their distance is its own kind of neglectful abuse and shirking of responsibility to the child.
Barton Springs—The narrator contemplates the nature of time, aging, and memory prompted by thinking about his brother’s death and a return to Barton Springs in Austin, TX, (where he previously lived) and the sensual experiences and erotic musings he’d had at the springs. “Only the memory is pure, the image.”
Summer of ’38—Marta pretends she doesn’t remember Rudolpho, the fascist soldier temporarily stationed in her riverside Spanish village during the Spanish Civil War, with whom she had a fling long ago during the summer of ’38, leaving her pregnant. She and her mother successfully contrived to get her married to Paco, a local man who was interested in her, who was good to her, raised the soldier’s daughter Rosa and the two other daughters Marta and Paco had together lovingly as his own, but died before the story begins. Many years later, the soldier comes to town and wants to meet with Marta, but she can’t face it. Rosa doesn’t know and doesn’t find out about her biological father and he doesn’t find out about her. “She [Marta] was from a world that was vehemently anti-Franco; no one wanted to remember those parties by the river,” Toibin said in an article in The Guardian.
Five Bridges—An Irishman, Paul, living illegally in Bay Area California on a 30-year old tourist visa decides to return to Ireland before being deported (his flight is on Monday 20 January 2025), but regrets the contact he will lose with Geraldine, his 12-year-old American daughter with a former girlfriend. He has an icy relationship with her mother Sandra and Sandra’s husband Stan, but at Geraldine’s request they hike to a mountain top hostel above Muir Woods to spend the night where there is a view of five bay bridges. Paul and Geraldine have been taking weekly hikes at Point Reyes. Paul knows it’s unlikely he’ll ever be able to return to the US unless there’s radical political change, so he reminisces about his 30 years there, doing plumbing work, but not doing anything to completion even though he is nearing age 50: he didn’t support Sandra with her pregnancy, didn’t contact her to meet Geraldine for four years, didn’t get a plumbing license, made no attempt to become a US citizen, stored his money in cash in his socks, never made his apartment into a real living space. He has an Irish passport, but contemplates how strange it will be to go “home” to a place that is not where he has lived most of his life, going back to his parents, what he will do as someone who is not even really a plumber. My favorite line: “The people here [US] prefer to be crooked while pretending to be holy.”
The Catalan Girls—This story is different from the rest of the collection. It is the longest, more of a novella of 108 pages, and though it covers some the same themes, it has a very different tone—lighter, more humorous and playful. This appears as the last story in the collection, and after having read so many preceding darker, heavier stories, I didn’t really connect with the lighter tone of this one until I read an article in The Guardian in which Tóibín discussed his inspiration for this story. He had met three older women sisters who were returning to Catalonia after living most of their lives in Argentina and he decided to write a story about three such sisters. “I made the middle one lesbian, the youngest dreamy and the eldest bossy. I gave them lovers and husbands. I imagined that the bossy one bossed her two younger sisters into getting the same hairdo as she had before they travelled back to Spain.” The story is told from the point of view of the youngest daughter, Montse, the dreamy one, who plays up her perception of mean treatment by her older siblings. The three sisters devise different ways of climbing the social ladder that sometimes reminded me of Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair (which I happen to be reading currently). Montse lives in a nice apartment provided by her married lover then later being her boss’s mistress enables her to buy a house. Nuria, the oldest, fakes her way into higher social circles—makes social climbing and being with the right people in the right places her main occupation and does actually marry a man who is wealthy. The middle sister, Conxita, somehow finds a position as a companion for a wealthy woman and her daughter, and ends up the daughter’s paramour. The story shows how the different siblings, because of slight age differences experience and respond differently to being transported to a different country and culture as children and how this affects their sense of who they are and what is home. In their 60s, the sisters return to Spain to take an inheritance of property. As usual, bossy self-centered Nuria tries to take over and control it all, but Montse finally asserts herself and refuses to sell the house, staying in Spain to live there.
This article in The Guardian provides information on some of Tóibín's inspirations for the stories in this collection: https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
This is the second of six short story collections for the 2026 Tournament of Books summer reading, this year focusing on short stories instead of novels. It is amazing how different these stories are from those in Brawler, in some ways more traditional and yet not. I loved both collections.
SPOILER ALERT: Given the nature of these stories I’m not sure what constitutes a spoiler, but to err on the side of caution I am warning that the following are potentially spoilery summaries and notes on each of the stories that are for my own attempts to process and retain all of these stories. If you wish to avoid spoilers, do not read them.
The Journey to Galway—The reflections of the mother of an only child, a son, after receiving a telegram that he has been killed in a burning plane in WWI, an Irishman fighting as British, as she journeys to Galway to take the telegram to her son’s wife (and 3 children), considering all the complexities of life and the son’s not-always-virtuous behavior and what kind of impact this will have going forward, from how memories of the deceased will form to the daughter-in-law’s inheritance of everything.
A Free Man—Though the subject matter of this story, pedophilia, is distasteful, this may be the most complex and intriguing story in the collection. Joe, the main character in this unsettling story leaves prison, “free” after completing his sentence for molesting teenage boy students he tutored in math, but he is surprisingly both free and not-so-free because of the stain of his crimes. He had accumulated enough money to buy an apartment in Barcelona and live there off a full teacher’s pension, but he seems to regret more the limitations on his life than the crimes he committed. This story shows that life doesn’t get back to a pre-prison state, people don’t forgive (even his family has formally disowned him) criminals (especially pedophiles) just because they have completed their sentences (no sense that the criminal has paid his debt to society and is this even possible?), and how some people may be damaged so that they are unchangeably lacking some moral and empathetic sense. Though there is no indication Joe would ever again repeat his crimes, he admits to Denis, his one acquaintance (whom he knows as a fellow seminary dropout), his remorse only for getting caught, not for what he did. Is there a sense of entitlement to not having remorse as a quid pro quo for having served the sentence but still having the lifelong stigma the criminal carries? I read or heard somewhere recently (I wish I could remember where) that people expect remorse from wrongdoers, but that it really is not that common. In this story, Joe thinks about the other child sex offenders he is in prison with and reflects that, “It might be believed that during the night they went over their crimes and considered their victims and felt shame and guilt, but as far as Joe could see, they each had a great distracting topic or obsession—as banal, say, as the excessive noise that came from the prison heating system, or the failure to provide a proper breakfast some days, or a farm they believed they had the deeds to, or the antics of a rogue solicitor, or the denial of day-release at Christmas—and that was what preoccupied them most.” People seem to be more scarred by wrongs committed against them than by those they commit against others. And what about Denis, who was always so eager to talk to Joe about religious sex offenders, was he one, had wanted to be one? There are subtle hints of Church and governmental influences and shirking of responsibility in the deep background of this story. Was Joe’s ten-year sentence served enough or just quietly brushing the problem under the rug? Nothing in this story suggests or creates any sympathy for Joe, but I found myself wondering whether Joe and Denis had been victims when they were young and this is a recurring problem that cannot get too much attention.
Sleep—A gay Irishman is amazed at his wonderful life having found, against so many odds, his Jewish American younger partner with whom he lives happily in NYC, but eventually his partner is too disturbed by the man’s troubled outbursts when they are sleeping at night and insists they must separate until the man gets “Irish help”. The man is troubled by lingering grief over his brother’s death. So the man goes back to Ireland where he sees a doctor who hypnotizes him, and during this the man feels he becomes his deceased brother as his brother is dying. The man goes back home, but doesn’t reconcile with his partner, and so doesn’t know whether he now sleeps quietly, but seems ok with this. Did he become or trade places with his dead brother? Did he decide that his partner’s insistence on treatment was unreasonable? Does the story title refer to the sleep of hypnotization, diurnal living sleep, and the permanent sleep of death?
The News From Dublin—Maurice’s family, desperate for help for the youngest brother who is suffering from TB, convince him to go from Enniscorthy to Dublin to ask a government minister with whom the family has some past contact to get them access to a miracle drug (currently being tested) before the brother dies. But the minister claims to have no access to it and cannot give them any hope, so Maurice will not be bringing home good news from Dublin. Maurice reflects that he doesn’t think prayer would help because God doesn’t address small matters and his brother’s life is a small matter to people who don’t know him (God and the minister with his God-like power?).
A Sum of Money—A poor boy is sent to a too-expensive private boarding school, but has no spending money, so succumbs to stealing money first from his mother, then from fellow students, and is expelled when caught. His only remorse seems to be for having been caught, and he seems ok with his parents not confronting him because they don’t know what to say—he seems to think this means he can just go on as if nothing happened. He seems a bit socially off. No one, parents, students, teachers, priests, confronts him. They act like he isn’t there. None of them show any cognizance of how hard it is for the impoverished child to fit in with the privileged wealthy classmates. Their distance is its own kind of neglectful abuse and shirking of responsibility to the child.
Barton Springs—The narrator contemplates the nature of time, aging, and memory prompted by thinking about his brother’s death and a return to Barton Springs in Austin, TX, (where he previously lived) and the sensual experiences and erotic musings he’d had at the springs. “Only the memory is pure, the image.”
Summer of ’38—Marta pretends she doesn’t remember Rudolpho, the fascist soldier temporarily stationed in her riverside Spanish village during the Spanish Civil War, with whom she had a fling long ago during the summer of ’38, leaving her pregnant. She and her mother successfully contrived to get her married to Paco, a local man who was interested in her, who was good to her, raised the soldier’s daughter Rosa and the two other daughters Marta and Paco had together lovingly as his own, but died before the story begins. Many years later, the soldier comes to town and wants to meet with Marta, but she can’t face it. Rosa doesn’t know and doesn’t find out about her biological father and he doesn’t find out about her. “She [Marta] was from a world that was vehemently anti-Franco; no one wanted to remember those parties by the river,” Toibin said in an article in The Guardian.
Five Bridges—An Irishman, Paul, living illegally in Bay Area California on a 30-year old tourist visa decides to return to Ireland before being deported (his flight is on Monday 20 January 2025), but regrets the contact he will lose with Geraldine, his 12-year-old American daughter with a former girlfriend. He has an icy relationship with her mother Sandra and Sandra’s husband Stan, but at Geraldine’s request they hike to a mountain top hostel above Muir Woods to spend the night where there is a view of five bay bridges. Paul and Geraldine have been taking weekly hikes at Point Reyes. Paul knows it’s unlikely he’ll ever be able to return to the US unless there’s radical political change, so he reminisces about his 30 years there, doing plumbing work, but not doing anything to completion even though he is nearing age 50: he didn’t support Sandra with her pregnancy, didn’t contact her to meet Geraldine for four years, didn’t get a plumbing license, made no attempt to become a US citizen, stored his money in cash in his socks, never made his apartment into a real living space. He has an Irish passport, but contemplates how strange it will be to go “home” to a place that is not where he has lived most of his life, going back to his parents, what he will do as someone who is not even really a plumber. My favorite line: “The people here [US] prefer to be crooked while pretending to be holy.”
The Catalan Girls—This story is different from the rest of the collection. It is the longest, more of a novella of 108 pages, and though it covers some the same themes, it has a very different tone—lighter, more humorous and playful. This appears as the last story in the collection, and after having read so many preceding darker, heavier stories, I didn’t really connect with the lighter tone of this one until I read an article in The Guardian in which Tóibín discussed his inspiration for this story. He had met three older women sisters who were returning to Catalonia after living most of their lives in Argentina and he decided to write a story about three such sisters. “I made the middle one lesbian, the youngest dreamy and the eldest bossy. I gave them lovers and husbands. I imagined that the bossy one bossed her two younger sisters into getting the same hairdo as she had before they travelled back to Spain.” The story is told from the point of view of the youngest daughter, Montse, the dreamy one, who plays up her perception of mean treatment by her older siblings. The three sisters devise different ways of climbing the social ladder that sometimes reminded me of Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair (which I happen to be reading currently). Montse lives in a nice apartment provided by her married lover then later being her boss’s mistress enables her to buy a house. Nuria, the oldest, fakes her way into higher social circles—makes social climbing and being with the right people in the right places her main occupation and does actually marry a man who is wealthy. The middle sister, Conxita, somehow finds a position as a companion for a wealthy woman and her daughter, and ends up the daughter’s paramour. The story shows how the different siblings, because of slight age differences experience and respond differently to being transported to a different country and culture as children and how this affects their sense of who they are and what is home. In their 60s, the sisters return to Spain to take an inheritance of property. As usual, bossy self-centered Nuria tries to take over and control it all, but Montse finally asserts herself and refuses to sell the house, staying in Spain to live there.
January 10, 2026
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.
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.
March 26, 2026
my 11th tóibín. what a writer.
May 18, 2026
3.5 overall. My favorite was The Journey to Galway. This story made it worth the read.
All other stories didn’t make a lasting impression. Excellently written are all of them, though.
All other stories didn’t make a lasting impression. Excellently written are all of them, though.
June 10, 2026
Dublin in Ireland 🇮🇪 casts a magic spell over me ! This magnificent city spread its charm over me as a 25 year old doctor in 1982 where I went to pursue my post graduation in Paediatrics and was there for 3 years as I have such fond memories of that place ! The News from Dublin is a 2026 collection of short stories by Colm Tóibín. Rather than a single continuous narrative, it contains stories set in Ireland, Spain, Argentina, and the United States, linked by themes of exile, loss, family bonds, memory, and the search for home.
Many of the characters are living far from where they began life—geographically, emotionally, or both. The stories explore how people cope with grief, displacement, loneliness, and difficult moral choices. Tóibín’s trademark style is quiet and understated, allowing powerful emotions to emerge through small gestures and unspoken tensions.
Notable Stories :
* “The Journey to Galway” follows a mother travelling to inform her daughter-in-law that her son has been killed in the First World War. It is a moving study of grief and duty.
* “The News from Dublin” (the title story) concerns a man who travels to Dublin seeking help from a government minister to obtain a life-saving tuberculosis treatment for his brother.
* “A Free Man” portrays a former prisoner trying to rebuild his life while confronting the consequences of his past actions.
* “The Catalan Girls” follows three sisters who emigrated from Catalonia to Argentina and later reflect on identity, language, belonging, and the meaning of home.
The collection repeatedly examines:
* The pain of separation from family and homeland.
* The lingering effects of grief and loss.
* Migration and exile.
* Moral ambiguity and personal responsibility.
* The difficulty of truly knowing oneself or others.
“Time rolls on and shadows fall,
But love and remembrance outlast all.”
I would give the book 4 stars.
Dr. Javed Rasheed
Many of the characters are living far from where they began life—geographically, emotionally, or both. The stories explore how people cope with grief, displacement, loneliness, and difficult moral choices. Tóibín’s trademark style is quiet and understated, allowing powerful emotions to emerge through small gestures and unspoken tensions.
Notable Stories :
* “The Journey to Galway” follows a mother travelling to inform her daughter-in-law that her son has been killed in the First World War. It is a moving study of grief and duty.
* “The News from Dublin” (the title story) concerns a man who travels to Dublin seeking help from a government minister to obtain a life-saving tuberculosis treatment for his brother.
* “A Free Man” portrays a former prisoner trying to rebuild his life while confronting the consequences of his past actions.
* “The Catalan Girls” follows three sisters who emigrated from Catalonia to Argentina and later reflect on identity, language, belonging, and the meaning of home.
The collection repeatedly examines:
* The pain of separation from family and homeland.
* The lingering effects of grief and loss.
* Migration and exile.
* Moral ambiguity and personal responsibility.
* The difficulty of truly knowing oneself or others.
“Time rolls on and shadows fall,
But love and remembrance outlast all.”
I would give the book 4 stars.
Dr. Javed Rasheed
March 26, 2026
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.
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.
June 21, 2026
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.
—-
Update 21 June 2026: Fabulous TLS interview with Colm about this collection from the Hay Festival this week: https://shows.acast.com/tlsvoices/epi...
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.
—-
Update 21 June 2026: Fabulous TLS interview with Colm about this collection from the Hay Festival this week: https://shows.acast.com/tlsvoices/epi...
February 24, 2026
A Masterclass in the Architecture of Silence: Why Tóibín’s New Collection is Essential Reading
As a reader of Tóibín’s Brooklyn and Long Island, I found The News from Dublin to be the essential connective tissue of his 'Enniscorthy-verse.' This collection should be read strictly in its published sequence; it is not a random assortment, but a deliberate, excavation of the Irish psyche.
The collection begins with a story of dispassionate duty set in 1944, moves through the 2020s San Francisco of Sleep, but the story that resonated most deeply for me was Five Bridges. Though it appears earlier in the book, it feels chronologically and politically current; as a contemporary of the protagonist, Paul, I found this narrative particularly striking. It deconstructs the "Wild Irish Rover" myth, replacing it with the reality of the solitary man: undocumented, unanchored, and living under the constant shadow of ICE and modern American deportation policies. The character of F. Sinnott, the "almost-priest" benefactor, adds a layer of quintessential Irish ambiguity that haunted me long after I finished the story.
Tóibín explores four pillars of Irish identity: our idealised notions of home, the trauma of generational silence, the ache of the diaspora, and our tendency to expel those who break certain unspoken codes. Whether set in a Christian Brothers boarding school in the 50s or a town near Lleida after the Spanish Civil War, the message is clear: whilst silence about the past can sometimes protect the next generation; 'the dreamer' and 'the loner' are often just euphemisms for damaged individuals who cannot reach outward. It is a stark reminder that the silence Tóibín writes about can act as a wall we build around ourselves, regardless of our origins.
This realisation leads the collection to a stunning crescendo in the final two stories, 'A Free Man' and 'The Catalan Girls.' These strip away the last of our romantic notions, leaving us with the sobering truth that the secrets we keep to preserve respectability are often the very things that prevent us from being free.
This is my first NetGalley read, and it has set an impossibly high bar. I will be gifting copies to friends and family, seeking out a signed first edition for my own shelf, and cannot wait to discuss this with my Book Group. Five stars is not enough.
As a reader of Tóibín’s Brooklyn and Long Island, I found The News from Dublin to be the essential connective tissue of his 'Enniscorthy-verse.' This collection should be read strictly in its published sequence; it is not a random assortment, but a deliberate, excavation of the Irish psyche.
The collection begins with a story of dispassionate duty set in 1944, moves through the 2020s San Francisco of Sleep, but the story that resonated most deeply for me was Five Bridges. Though it appears earlier in the book, it feels chronologically and politically current; as a contemporary of the protagonist, Paul, I found this narrative particularly striking. It deconstructs the "Wild Irish Rover" myth, replacing it with the reality of the solitary man: undocumented, unanchored, and living under the constant shadow of ICE and modern American deportation policies. The character of F. Sinnott, the "almost-priest" benefactor, adds a layer of quintessential Irish ambiguity that haunted me long after I finished the story.
Tóibín explores four pillars of Irish identity: our idealised notions of home, the trauma of generational silence, the ache of the diaspora, and our tendency to expel those who break certain unspoken codes. Whether set in a Christian Brothers boarding school in the 50s or a town near Lleida after the Spanish Civil War, the message is clear: whilst silence about the past can sometimes protect the next generation; 'the dreamer' and 'the loner' are often just euphemisms for damaged individuals who cannot reach outward. It is a stark reminder that the silence Tóibín writes about can act as a wall we build around ourselves, regardless of our origins.
This realisation leads the collection to a stunning crescendo in the final two stories, 'A Free Man' and 'The Catalan Girls.' These strip away the last of our romantic notions, leaving us with the sobering truth that the secrets we keep to preserve respectability are often the very things that prevent us from being free.
This is my first NetGalley read, and it has set an impossibly high bar. I will be gifting copies to friends and family, seeking out a signed first edition for my own shelf, and cannot wait to discuss this with my Book Group. Five stars is not enough.
April 5, 2026
a brilliant collection of short stories that spread its roots in Ireland, USA, Argentina and other places, forming an intricate network of human emotions and resilience. i really loved the flow of the stories the quiet melody of it, as if draped in a veil of morning mist. special thanks for the publishers for sending me the arc!
June 14, 2026
4.5
I liked all the short stories in different ways which are read by two narrators on the audible. I think the last one ‘the Catalan Girls’ would’ve been better as a separate novella and didn’t interest me as much. The TB story reminded me of a book by Linda Grant and conveyed the same sense of injustice. A Free Man stayed with me because the author managed to humanise the character in spite of his heinous crimes. Another story that was impactful was the one about the isolation a schoolboy from a poor home feels living with privileged students. The journey home in a car full of cigarette smoke and unspoken words is very powerful. Themes of loneliness, exile, return, displacement, secrets and lies are explored in the lives of people who appear to be ordinary but are far more complex.
I liked all the short stories in different ways which are read by two narrators on the audible. I think the last one ‘the Catalan Girls’ would’ve been better as a separate novella and didn’t interest me as much. The TB story reminded me of a book by Linda Grant and conveyed the same sense of injustice. A Free Man stayed with me because the author managed to humanise the character in spite of his heinous crimes. Another story that was impactful was the one about the isolation a schoolboy from a poor home feels living with privileged students. The journey home in a car full of cigarette smoke and unspoken words is very powerful. Themes of loneliness, exile, return, displacement, secrets and lies are explored in the lives of people who appear to be ordinary but are far more complex.
dnf-liked-it-but-not-the-vibe-rn
March 2, 2026Very 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).
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).
June 7, 2026
I read some of these stories with far more pleasure then those in Toibin's 'Mothers and Sons' - I thought the story 'Journey to Galway' absolutely superb though I am astonished how the publisher and reviews fail to identify the central character as Lady Gregory - particularly as she featured in the fine story 'Silence' from Toibin's 2006 short story collection 'Silence in the Family' - particularly as he has written a non-fiction work about Lady Gregory - 'Lady Gregory's Toothbrush' (see my footnote *1 below).
But I found others odd - 'The News from Dublin' - although powerful and well written it deals with the reality of TB in Ireland in the 1950s - but that is not something Toibin experienced - it was the experience of his and my parents generation. Too often I find that his stories are carefully constructed to hide the time they are set in - this could also be said of the final long story 'The Catalan Girls' which is without specifics to date it but I would guess it is describing a Spain of easily forty years ago. This story and a 'Free Man' also suffer from more the problem that they really have no resolution and many unanswered questions so they appear more like first drafts or even parts of novels abandoned. I suspect only an author of Toibin's reputation could get away with publishing work like this.
I am sure most readers of Toibin's work will enjoy them immensely - but they have done nothing to overcome reservations about him as a writer. I have awarded the novel four stars on the basis of the story 'The Journey to Galway'.
*1 Perhaps you have to be Irish of a certain generation for Lady Gregory and W.B. Yeats to resonate so strongly with you - for me they were both mythic and familiar (I was at school with the grandson of Years) and the poem Yeats wrote on the death of Lady Gregory's son, Robert the raison d'etre of the story is one of his finest:
"An Irish Airman Foresees His Death"
I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
But I found others odd - 'The News from Dublin' - although powerful and well written it deals with the reality of TB in Ireland in the 1950s - but that is not something Toibin experienced - it was the experience of his and my parents generation. Too often I find that his stories are carefully constructed to hide the time they are set in - this could also be said of the final long story 'The Catalan Girls' which is without specifics to date it but I would guess it is describing a Spain of easily forty years ago. This story and a 'Free Man' also suffer from more the problem that they really have no resolution and many unanswered questions so they appear more like first drafts or even parts of novels abandoned. I suspect only an author of Toibin's reputation could get away with publishing work like this.
I am sure most readers of Toibin's work will enjoy them immensely - but they have done nothing to overcome reservations about him as a writer. I have awarded the novel four stars on the basis of the story 'The Journey to Galway'.
*1 Perhaps you have to be Irish of a certain generation for Lady Gregory and W.B. Yeats to resonate so strongly with you - for me they were both mythic and familiar (I was at school with the grandson of Years) and the poem Yeats wrote on the death of Lady Gregory's son, Robert the raison d'etre of the story is one of his finest:
"An Irish Airman Foresees His Death"
I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
June 5, 2026
3.5/5
A collection of understated, contemplative short stories that felt perpetually set to simmer. The characters in each story face and/or give in to some moral dilemma or failure, but the stories are less interested with the explosive fallout than with the landscape after the fact. The stories explore recurring themes of family, socioeconomic divide, and the mundanity of sin.
My favorites are:
- Catalan Girls: The longest, arguably novella length (makes up half the book); about three estranged sisters who reunite to visit their recently deceased aunt's mountain home, a site of many childhood summers and now an inheritance. I liked how distinct the characters and journeys of the three sisters went, even with the youngest, Montse, as the narrator, we still get a good grasp of Nuria's pride and Conxita's mischief. Each sister's fortune has been spelled by their varying levels of success at infiltrating the upper class, from a marriage to an affair. Interesting relationship dynamics and memorable characters.
- Journey to Galway: The opener; a mother travels to deliver the news of her son's death in the war to her daughter in law. The story wrestles with the complexity of a person's actions while they were alive and how those thorns are sanded down by grief in their passing.
- Five Bridges: An undocumented immigrant goes on one last hike with his daughter before he leaves America to never return, with threats of mass deportation looming on the horizon. The man's relationship with his daughter was interesting and heartfelt, with the future uncertain and dismal, but nonetheless hopeful
- A Free Man: A former teacher convicted and imprisoned for pedophilia and a history of grooming students at an all-boys school goes on parole to a different country where he reconnects with an old friend from the seminary (yes they were closeted while training to be priests). Far from a redemptive story, it takes us deep into the twisted pysche of someone that has committed a crime without feeling sorry for it. He's so calm about everything I was left questioning if he was even guilty at the start, but the longer it goes on you realize that he just doesnt care, which was an unsettling revelation.
The other stories I did not really find memorable (A Sum of Money was just not for me), but may be better for others. I think I do prefer sci-fi or fantasy for my short stories, but reading this was a good change of pace.
Thank you to Picador and Netgalley for the eARC. All thoughts are my own.
A collection of understated, contemplative short stories that felt perpetually set to simmer. The characters in each story face and/or give in to some moral dilemma or failure, but the stories are less interested with the explosive fallout than with the landscape after the fact. The stories explore recurring themes of family, socioeconomic divide, and the mundanity of sin.
My favorites are:
- Catalan Girls: The longest, arguably novella length (makes up half the book); about three estranged sisters who reunite to visit their recently deceased aunt's mountain home, a site of many childhood summers and now an inheritance. I liked how distinct the characters and journeys of the three sisters went, even with the youngest, Montse, as the narrator, we still get a good grasp of Nuria's pride and Conxita's mischief. Each sister's fortune has been spelled by their varying levels of success at infiltrating the upper class, from a marriage to an affair. Interesting relationship dynamics and memorable characters.
- Journey to Galway: The opener; a mother travels to deliver the news of her son's death in the war to her daughter in law. The story wrestles with the complexity of a person's actions while they were alive and how those thorns are sanded down by grief in their passing.
- Five Bridges: An undocumented immigrant goes on one last hike with his daughter before he leaves America to never return, with threats of mass deportation looming on the horizon. The man's relationship with his daughter was interesting and heartfelt, with the future uncertain and dismal, but nonetheless hopeful
- A Free Man: A former teacher convicted and imprisoned for pedophilia and a history of grooming students at an all-boys school goes on parole to a different country where he reconnects with an old friend from the seminary (yes they were closeted while training to be priests). Far from a redemptive story, it takes us deep into the twisted pysche of someone that has committed a crime without feeling sorry for it. He's so calm about everything I was left questioning if he was even guilty at the start, but the longer it goes on you realize that he just doesnt care, which was an unsettling revelation.
The other stories I did not really find memorable (A Sum of Money was just not for me), but may be better for others. I think I do prefer sci-fi or fantasy for my short stories, but reading this was a good change of pace.
Thank you to Picador and Netgalley for the eARC. All thoughts are my own.
June 15, 2026
Particularly enjoyed his Spanish stories & Five Bridges. Ironically his stories set in Ireland fell a bit flat for me.
June 24, 2026
3.5 stars. A collection of 8 short stories and a novella by the author of Long Island and Brooklyn, The author is also known for his prodigious works of literary fiction and non-fiction, plays and poetry.
I tend to really like short stories, but in this case, I felt like these were lacking something. The writing is excellent, but the recurring and underlying themes of displacement, lonliness, and melancholly linger without resolution. The stories just seem to wander off at the end and fizzle away.
I think I'm going to have to take a break from contemporary Irish fiction for a while....all those unhappy characters have done me in.
I tend to really like short stories, but in this case, I felt like these were lacking something. The writing is excellent, but the recurring and underlying themes of displacement, lonliness, and melancholly linger without resolution. The stories just seem to wander off at the end and fizzle away.
I think I'm going to have to take a break from contemporary Irish fiction for a while....all those unhappy characters have done me in.
June 10, 2026
These nine stories - some very short, one long - show Toibin’s skills to perfection. He takes different people, different countries, different situations to bring out the experiences and emotions of ordinary people. There is more sadness and loss than joy in these stories but I loved them all.
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