Colm Toibin

Mariella Frostrup is joined by award-winning Irish writer Colm Toibin, to celebrate the publication of his new novel, and to look back over a distinguished writing career that spans some quarter of a century.

Colm Toibin is the author of eight novels, including Blackwater Lightship, The Master and The Testament of Mary, all three of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize, as well as Brooklyn, which won the Costa award and is being made into a film.

Toibin's new novel, Nora Webster, set in his home town of Enniscorthy, is a moving and powerful portrait of one mother's journey from grief towards hope. Colm Toibin, too, lost his father as the age of 12, and has said: 'A child who loses a parent never recovers.'

Colm Toibin will be talking to Mariella about grief, loss, home, and why a man revered for such melancholy prose is also known for his humour and lust for life.