Colm Tóibín

One of my frustrations as a reader is learning about an excellent book or writer that I know I won’t find the time to read (because my want-to-read list is already so long).

Today I listened the New York Times Book Review Podcast of May 3, 2024, in which Sarah Lyall interviews Colm Tóibín.

Tóibín, who is an Irish writer aged 68, has just published Long Island, the sequel to his novel Brooklyn, which was published in 2009. Tóibín, in addition to writing novels, teaches at Columbia University and writes nonfiction, essays, and reviews. In the interview, Tóibín is articulate, intelligent, and likeable, and in another life I would take classes taught by him.

Added on March 13, 2025

Giles Harvey reviewed Long Island in “Bonds and Gestures”, which appeared in the February 13, 2025 issue of The New York Review of Books.

And today an essay by Colm Tóibín, “Her Own Woman”, about Mary McCarthy, appeared in The New York Review of Books.