Blackwater Lightship, The

Description:
'This is the most astonishing piece of writing, lyrical in its emotion and spare in its construction ...Toibin has crafted an unmissable read' - 'Sunday Herald'. In Blackwater in the early 1990s, three women - Dora Devereux, her daughter Lily and her granddaughter Helen - have come together after years of strife and reached an uneasy truce. Helen's adored brother Declan is dying. Two friends join him and the women in a crumbling old house by the sea, where the six of them, from different generations and with different beliefs, must listen and come to terms with one another.'It is in his emotional choreography that Toibin shows himself to be an exceptional writer. Helen is estranged from both her mother and grandmother ...Toibin helps them make peace - and he does it beautifully' - 'Sunday Telegraph'. 'He writes in spare, powerful prose and he is truly perceptive about family relationships which, at times, makes reading his stories incredibly painful. But this is a beautiful novel' - 'Belfast News'. 'We shall be reading and living with 'The Blackwater Lightship' in twenty years' - 'Independent on Sunday'. 'Rises to heights of extraordinary beauty' - 'Independent on Sunday'.

Prizes:
Shortlisted for IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2001.
Shortlisted for Booker Prize for Fiction 1999.

Author Biography:
Colm Toibin was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of five novels, most recently The Master, which was shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize. His non-fiction includes Bad Blood, Homage to Barcelona and The Sign of the Cross. His work has been translated into seventeen languages. He lives in Dublin.