About the Author

Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island, an Oprah's Book Club Pick; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; and Nora Webster; as well as two story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and was named the 2022-2024 Laureate for Irish Fiction by the Arts Council of Ireland. He was shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize. He was also awarded the Bodley Medal, the Würth Prize for European Literature, and the Prix Femina spécial for his body of work.

Reviews

Praise for The Master "Exquisite storytelling." --Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy "A spectacular novel." --Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones "A gorgeous portrait of a complex and passionate man." --Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran "Tóibín takes us almost shockingly close to the mystery of art itself. A remarkably, utterly original book." --Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours "A marvel." --John Updike, The New Yorker "A deep, lovely, and enthralling book that engages with the disquiet and drama of a famous writing life." --Shirely Hazzard, author of The Great Fire "Colm Tóibín does more than observe Henry James, he inhabits him. And from that ingenious perspective, he has produced an astonishing tour de force." --John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and The City of Falling Angels "Superbly controlled ... this novel is a masterful, unshowy meditation on work, ambition, friendship, longing and mortality." --Chicago Tribune "Tóibín's work displays the kind of depth and sensitivity that few authors can offer.... The result is a beautiful, haunting portrayal that measures the amplitude of silence and trajectory of a glance in the life of one of the world's most astute social observers." --The Christian Science Monitor "Extraordinary . . .Tóibín paints a graceful, terribly sad portrait." --Entertainment Weekly "A deep, lovely, and enthralling book that engages with the disquiet and drama of a famous writing life: splendidly conceived and composed by a writer who is himself a master of his art." --Shirley Hazzard, author of The Great Fire "An indelibly beautiful novel." --O, The Oprah Magazine "The Master is a superbly researched nuanced portrait." --San Francisco Chronicle "In Tóibín's skillful hands, what unfolds is a seamless and ultimately moving portrait of a fading era." --The Boston Globe "In Tóibín's luminous fifth novel, he imagines the life of this intensely private American novelist. ... It's a delicate, mysterious process, this act of creation, fraught with psychological tension, but Tóibín captures it beautifully." --People "This is an audacious, profound, and wonderfully intelligent book." --The Guardian (U.K.) "Colm Tóibín's magnificent novel is a moving meditation on solitude as the wellspring of beauty." --Bernhard Schlink, author of The Reader "Colm Tóibín has a perfect understanding of the greatest of all American writers and accompanies him to Rome, Newport, Paris, Florence, the London of Oscar Wilde. Nothing about this book, however, feels piecemeal or improvised; it is a sustained performance worthy of the Master." --Edmund White, author of A Boy's Own Story and Fanny: A Fiction "The Master proceeds with conversational naturalness, reading nothing like a biography. Tóibín uses a brilliant episodic architecture.... The cumulative effect is captivating." --Minneapolis Star Tribune "A formidably brilliant performance." --Kirkus Reviews (starred) "Colm Tóibín's beautiful, subtle illumination of Henry James's inner life . . . works so brilliantly." --The New York Times "Beautifully written, humane and spiced with welcome wit, The Master is a masterful work of fiction." --The Courier Post "A quiet tour de force: a work of deep seriousness and sympathy that gives us a genius in his full human dimensions. ... [This] profound novel is--dare one say it?--masterly." --New York Observer "Tóibín has written a work of great skill and ingenuity." --The Weekly Standard "A marvelous literary achievement." --BookPage "With this tribute to Henry James, Colm Tóibín allows us to become the master himself." --St. Petersburg Times "Even the reader who knows little about Henry James or his work can enjoy this marvelously intelligent and engaging novel, which presents not on a silver platter, but in tender, opened hands a beautifully nuanced psychological portrait." --Booklist "The Master is eminently approachable, an altogether wonderful experience." --The Gay and Lesbian Review "I can think of no other fictional portrait of a great writer--and the writer's whole distinguished family--which is steadily compelling as an eloquent story and is also a genuine contribution to literary understanding." --Reynolds Price, author of Noble Norfleet "It is unlikely a better book about James will ever be written." --Irish Voice "[An] enthralling novel. . . . Tóibín displays--in a manner that is masterly--the wit and metaphorical flair, psychological subtlety and phrases of pouncing incisiveness with which a great novelist captured the nuances of consciousness and duplicities of society." --Sunday Times (U.K.) "To make a novel out of a writer's life, and to have it turn out to be a genuine novel and not a disguised biography, is a strategic feat: Tóibín's shy sly cadences and structural ingenuities are discreetly brilliant and always effective. His rendering of the first hints, or sensations, of the tales as they form in James's thoughts is itself an instance of writer's wizardry. This beautiful and perceptive novel will earn the rapt admiration of Jamesians and non-Jamesians alike." --Cynthia Ozick

Dublin journalist, travel book writer, and novelist (his Blackwater Lightship was short-listed for the 1999 Booker Prize), Toibin here turns a life-long obsession with Henry James into a scrupulously researched and artfully rendered biographical novel. Fear not, fervent Jamesians, no attempt has been made to imitate the master's inimitable style. Even when the narrator takes us inside the mind of James, circa 1890s, Toibin's prose is largely straightforward even as the subject matter discursively wanders the streets and beau monde residences of Paris, Dublin, London, Rome, Venice, and James's English home, Lamb House, in Rye, Sussex. From the subtle machinations of James's closeted homoerotic sensibilities, to his intense friendships with both men and women, to his angst over the notorious failure of his only performed drama, Toibin excels at showing us (not telling us, as James himself advised in his seminal essay, "The Art of Fiction") the connections between James's life and his fictional oeuvre. Highly recommended for most fiction and all literary fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/04.] Mark Andr? Singer, Mechanics' Inst. Lib., San Francisco Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Praise for The Master "Exquisite storytelling." -Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy "A spectacular novel." -Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones "A gorgeous portrait of a complex and passionate man." -Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran "Toibin takes us almost shockingly close to the mystery of art itself. A remarkably, utterly original book." -Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours "A marvel." -John Updike, The New Yorker "A deep, lovely, and enthralling book that engages with the disquiet and drama of a famous writing life." -Shirely Hazzard, author of The Great Fire "Colm Toibin does more than observe Henry James, he inhabits him. And from that ingenious perspective, he has produced an astonishing tour de force." -John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and The City of Falling Angels "Superbly controlled ... this novel is a masterful, unshowy meditation on work, ambition, friendship, longing and mortality." -Chicago Tribune "Toibin's work displays the kind of depth and sensitivity that few authors can offer.... The result is a beautiful, haunting portrayal that measures the amplitude of silence and trajectory of a glance in the life of one of the world's most astute social observers." -The Christian Science Monitor "Extraordinary . . .Toibin paints a graceful, terribly sad portrait." -Entertainment Weekly "A deep, lovely, and enthralling book that engages with the disquiet and drama of a famous writing life: splendidly conceived and composed by a writer who is himself a master of his art." -Shirley Hazzard, author of The Great Fire "An indelibly beautiful novel." -O, The Oprah Magazine "The Master is a superbly researched nuanced portrait." -San Francisco Chronicle "In Toibin's skillful hands, what unfolds is a seamless and ultimately moving portrait of a fading era." -The Boston Globe "In Toibin's luminous fifth novel, he imagines the life of this intensely private American novelist. ... It's a delicate, mysterious process, this act of creation, fraught with psychological tension, but Toibin captures it beautifully." -People "This is an audacious, profound, and wonderfully intelligent book." -The Guardian (U.K.) "Colm Toibin's magnificent novel is a moving meditation on solitude as the wellspring of beauty." -Bernhard Schlink, author of The Reader "Colm Toibin has a perfect understanding of the greatest of all American writers and accompanies him to Rome, Newport, Paris, Florence, the London of Oscar Wilde. Nothing about this book, however, feels piecemeal or improvised; it is a sustained performance worthy of the Master." -Edmund White, author of A Boy's Own Story and Fanny: A Fiction "The Master proceeds with conversational naturalness, reading nothing like a biography. Toibin uses a brilliant episodic architecture.... The cumulative effect is captivating." -Minneapolis Star Tribune "A formidably brilliant performance." -Kirkus Reviews (starred) "Colm Toibin's beautiful, subtle illumination of Henry James's inner life . . . works so brilliantly." -The New York Times "Beautifully written, humane and spiced with welcome wit, The Master is a masterful work of fiction." -The Courier Post "A quiet tour de force: a work of deep seriousness and sympathy that gives us a genius in his full human dimensions. ... [This] profound novel is-dare one say it?-masterly." -New York Observer "Toibin has written a work of great skill and ingenuity." -The Weekly Standard "A marvelous literary achievement." -BookPage "With this tribute to Henry James, Colm Toibin allows us to become the master himself." -St. Petersburg Times "Even the reader who knows little about Henry James or his work can enjoy this marvelously intelligent and engaging novel, which presents not on a silver platter, but in tender, opened hands a beautifully nuanced psychological portrait." -Booklist "The Master is eminently approachable, an altogether wonderfu