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Start giftingMothers and Sons
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Learn moreAward-winning novelist Tóibín brings to this stunning first collection of short works an acute understanding of human frailty and longing. These nine beautifully written, intensely intimate stories explore the psychological push and pull between mother and son. Each story is centered on a transformative moment that alters the delicate balance of power in that relationship and changes the way mother and son perceive one another. With exquisite grace and eloquence, Tóibín writes of men and women bound by convention, by unspoken emotions, and by the stronghold of the past. Many are trapped in lives they would not choose again. Through the unique lens of each complex mother-son relationship, surprising hidden facets of character are revealed.
Note: this collection contains adult subject matter that may be unsettling to some.
Colm Tóibín was born in Enniscorthy in 1955. He is the author of nine novels including The Master, Brooklyn, The Testament of Mary and Nora Webster and, most recently, House of Names. His work has been shortlisted for the Booker three times, won the Costa Novel Award and the Impac Award. He has also published two collections of stories and many works of non-fiction. He lives in Dublin.
Gerard Doyle was born of Irish parents and raised and educated in England. His career in British repertory theater includes The Crucible, Playboy of the Western World, The Tempest, The Importance of Being Earnest, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, Treasure Island, Fiddler on the Roof, and Brecht’s Baal. In London’s West End, he appeared in the gritty musical The Hired Man and toured internationally with the English Shakespeare Company in Corialanus, The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, and Twelfth Night. His television career in the UK includes Blott on the Landscape, The Bill, The Knock, 2point4 Children, The Brittas Empire, and Brass Eye. In America he has appeared on Broadway in The Weir and on television in New York Undercover and Law & Order, as well as a number of commercials on network TV. He is an award-winning narrator of some 400 audiobooks. He enjoys singing and playing traditional Irish music on tin whistle and bodhran. He lives with his wife and two children in Sag Harbor, New York.
Reviews
“In all the wise, tender and illuminating stories to be found in this collection, [Tóibín] aims simply to show how, for better or for worse, the bond between mother and son is as inexplicable as it is unbreakable.”
“Tóibín is a writer of extraordinary emotional clarity…These are beautiful stories, beautifully crafted.”
“Gerard Doyle’s introspective and masterful reading of most of Tóibín’s short stories is nearly perfect…Doyle phrases the stories carefully in order to highlight the rich nuances and stark lighting and scenery…Tóibín’s consummate writing skills are not to be missed by lovers of serious literature.”
“Longing, frustrated expectations and an offhandedly gorgeous Ireland run steadily throughout…Wistful, touching and complex, these stories form a panoramic portrait of loss.”
“[Tóibín’s] exacting control over both form and material never varies…his adaptability in writing short or long, and in working with characters far different from one another, is astonishing…[A] rich but supple prose style seals each story’s—and thus the collection’s—absolute success.”
“This outstanding collection will be deeply satisfying if you love literary fiction. Gerard Doyle does the best and apparently hardest thing for a narrator: He makes himself invisible so that the stories come alive for the listener, seemingly without an intermediary between the ear and the author…Doyle brings them alive with gravity and respect, exciting wonder at the emotional complexity of ordinary lives. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
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