Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The South | 1990 | Colm Tóibín | Buy |
| 2 | The Heather Blazing | 1992 | Colm Tóibín | Buy |
| 3 | The Story of the Night | 1996 | Colm Tóibín | Buy |
| 4 | The Blackwater Lightship | 1999 | Colm Tóibín | Buy |
| 5 | The Master | 2004 | Colm Tóibín | Buy |
| 6 | The Testament of Mary | 2012 | Colm Tóibín | Buy |
| 7 | Nora Webster | 2014 | Colm Tóibín | Buy |
| 8 | House of Names | 2017 | Colm Tóibín | Buy |
| 9 | The Magician | 2021 | Colm Tóibín | Buy |
Colm Toibin’s standalone novels range across time periods and settings. The South, his debut, follows an Irish woman who moves to Spain in the 1950s. The Master is a fictionalized portrait of Henry James during a difficult period of his career, and it was shortlisted for the 2004 Booker Prize. The Blackwater Lightship brought three generations of an Irish family together around a dying son.
His later novels have been just as varied. The Testament of Mary retells the story of the Virgin Mary from her own bitter perspective. House of Names reimagines the Greek myth of Clytemnestra. The Magician is a biographical novel about Thomas Mann. Each book takes on a different world, but Toibin’s interest in loneliness and family runs through all of them.