A Guest at the Feast

From one of the greatest writers of our time comes a collection of brilliant essays about growing up in Ireland during radical change and about cancer, priests, popes, and homosexuality. It is a glorious tribute to the art of writing.

Colm Tóibín opens this stunning collection with a supremely compelling essay, laced with humor about his (successful) treatment for cancer, which begins: "It all started with my balls."

Part two is an autobiographical essay about growing up in the small town of Enniscorthy in County Wexford, the setting for many of his novels and stories, including Brooklyn, The Blackwater Lightship, and Nora Webster. Tóibín writes about the priests who educated him, several of whom were condemned years later for abuse in the greatest scandal ever to befall the Catholic Church in Ireland. He writes about Irish history and literature and about homosexuality--including his personal experience, that of his predecessors and contemporaries, and the long, tragic journey toward legal and social acceptance.

In part three, Tóibín introduces complex portraits of three popes--John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis.

In part four he writes about a trio of authors who reckon with religion. The final essay, "Alone in Venice," beautifully recounts his trip to that incomparable city (where he has set some of his most dazzling scenes) at the height of the pandemic, when the streets and canals and churches and museums were empty.

A Guest at the Feast is a glorious celebration of a life devoted to art.

“"[A] magnificent volume...Throughout, the poetry of T”

óibín's prose is as impressive as always. In the title piece, he writes that his mother was 'what most of us still write for: the ordinary reader, curious and intelligent and demanding, ready to be moved and changed.' Readers like her will savor every page of this book."

Colm Tóibín is the author of ten novels, including 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; The Testament of Mary; 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 has been named as the laureate for Irish fiction for 2022-2025 by the Arts Council of Ireland. Three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Tóibín lives in Dublin and New York. Colm Tóibín is the author of ten novels, including 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; The Testament of Mary; 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 has been named as the laureate for Irish fiction for 2022-2025 by the Arts Council of Ireland. Three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Tóibín lives in Dublin and New York.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.