Monday, August 20, 2007

Ireland

Bonnie said, "A good book for Ireland is The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Tóibín. I posted a review of the book last week."

It is Ireland in the early 1990s. Helen, her mother, Lily, and her grandmother, Dora have come together to tend to Helen's brother, Declan, who is dying of AIDS. With Declan's two friends, the six of them are forced to plumb the shoals of their own histories and to come to terms with each other. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Tóibín is a deeply resonant story about three generations of an estranged family reuniting to mourn an untimely death. In spare, luminous prose, Colm Tóibín explores the nature of love and the complex emotions inside a family at war with itself.

1 comment:

Amy said...

I read this book a while back and liked it very much...more recently I read Anne Enright's novel "The Gathering" for Ireland in the challenge: here is a link to my post:
http://considerationofbooks.blogspot.com/2008/03/anne-enright-gathering.html