Colm Tóibín (in Irish ˈkɔl̪ˠəmˠ t̪ˠoːˈbʲiːnʲ/; born 30 May 1955) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet.[1] He has won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, the International Dublin Literary Award, the Hawthornden Prize, the David Cohen Prize and the Folio Prize, amongst other awards.
Asked in 2021 how many articles he had written, Tóibín was uncertain: "I suppose thousands might be accurate", he told The New Yorker.
| Year | class='unsortable' | Review article | class='unsortable' | Work(s) reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Tóibín, Colm . 8 April 1993 . The Built-in Reader . London Review of Books . 15 . 7 . | Book: Samuel Beckett . O'Brien, Eoin . Fournier, Edith . Beckett, Samuel . Samuel Beckett . . . 1992 . 0-7145-4212-1 . | ||
| 1994 | Tóibín, Colm . 26 May 1994 . Insiderish . London Review of Books . 16 . 10 . | Book: Harold Brodkey . Brodkey, Harold . Harold Brodkey . Profane Friendship . . 1994 . 0-224-03775-7 . | ||
| 1994 | Tóibín, Colm . 4 August 1994 . The South . London Review of Books . 16 . 15 . | Book: One Art: The Selected Letters of Elizabeth Bishop . . 1994 . 0-7011-6195-7 . | ||
| 1995 | Tóibín, Colm . 20 April 1995 . Like Learning to Swim in Early Middle Age . London Review of Books . 17 . 8 . | Book: Thom Gunn . Gunn, Thom . Thom Gunn . Shelf Life: Essays, Memoirs and an Interview . . 1994 . 0-571-17196-6 . | ||
| 1996 | Tóibín, Colm . 5 September 1996 . Why should you be the only ones that sin? . London Review of Books . 18 . 17 . | Book: Anthony Heilbut . Heilbut, Anthony . Anthony Heilbut . Thomas Mann: Eros and Literature . . 1996 . 978-0-39-455633-8 .
. Hayman, Ronald . Ronald Hayman . Thomas Mann: A Biography . . 1996 . 0-7475-2531-5 . ; Book: Prater, Donald . Thomas Mann: A Life . . 1995 . 0-19-815861-0 . | ||
| 2000 | Tóibín, Colm . 10 August 2000 . Gaelic Gloom . London Review of Books . 22 . 15 . | Book: Denis Sampson . Sampson, Denis . Denis Sampson . Brian Moore: The Chameleon Novelist . Marino Books . 1998 . 1-86023-078-4 . | ||
| 2003 | Tóibín, Colm . 4 February 2003 . A Djinn speaks . London Review of Books . 25 . 4 . | Book: Ann Saddlemyer . Saddlemyer, Ann . Ann Saddlemyer . Becoming George: The Life of Mrs W. B. Yeats . . 2002 . 0-19-811232-7 . | ||
| 2004 | Tóibín, Colm . 7 October 2004 . Return to Catalonia . The New York Review of Books . LI . 15 . | Book: Cercas, Javier . Javier Cercas . McLean, Anne . Anne McLean . Soldiers of Salamis . . 2004 . 978-1582343846 . | ||
| 2006 | Tóibín, Colm . 11 May 2006 . Don't abandon me . London Review of Books . 28 . 9 . | Book: Williamson, Edwin . Borges: A Life . Penguin . 2005 . 0-14-024657-6 . | ||
| 2006 | Tóibín, Colm . 30 November 2006 . A Thousand Prayers . The New York Review of Books . LIII . 19 . | Book: Yiyun Li . Li, Yiyun . Yiyun Li . . . 2005 . 978-1400063123 . | ||
| 2007 | Tóibín, Colm . 26 April 2007 . Dissecting the Body . London Review of Books . 29 . 8 . | Book: Ian McEwan . McEwan, Ian . Ian McEwan . . . 2007 . 978-0-224-08118-4 . | ||
| 2008 | Tóibín, Colm . 20 December 2007 . The Shadow of Rose . The New York Review of Books . LIV . 20 . | Book: Tennessee Williams . Williams, Tennessee . Tennessee Williams . Bradham Thornton, Margaret . John L. Thornton#Personal life . Notebooks . . 2007 . 978-0300116823 . | ||
| 2008 | Tóibín, Colm . 3 January 2008 . A Man with My Trouble . London Review of Books . 30 . 1 . | Book: Walker, Pierre . Zacharias, Greg . The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1855–72: Volume I . . 2007 . 978-0-8032-2584-8 .
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| 2008 | Tóibín, Colm . 17 April 2008 . A Great American Visionary . The New York Review of Books . LV . 6 . | Book: Hart Crane . Crane, Hart . Hart Crane . Hart Crane: Complete Poems and Selected Letters . . 2006 . 978-1931082990 . | ||
| 2008 | Tóibín, Colm . 6 November 2008 . I Could Sleep with All of Them . London Review of Books . 30 . 21 . | Book: André Weiss . Weiss, Andrea . André Weiss . In the Shadow of the Magic Mountain: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story . . 2008 . 978-0-226-88672-5 . | ||
| 2009 | Tóibín, Colm . 14 May 2009 . Follow-the-Leader . London Review of Books . 31 . 9 . | Book: Travisano, Thomas . Hamilton, Saskia . Saskia Hamilton . Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell . . 2008 . 978-0-571-24308-2 . | ||
| 2009 | Tóibín, Colm . 11 June 2009 . The Admirable Mrs James . The New York Review of Books . LVI . 10 . | Book: Gunter, Susan, E. . Alice in Jamesland: The Story of Alice Howe Gibbens James . . 2009 . 978-0803215696 .
| ||
| 2009 | Tóibín, Colm . 6 August 2009 . Who to Be . London Review of Books . 31 . 15 . | Book: Dow Fehsenfeld, Martha . More Overback, Lois . The Letters of Samuel Beckett, 1929–40 . . 2009 . 978-0-521-86793-1 . | ||
| 2009 | Tóibín, Colm . 5 November 2009 . My God, the Suburbs! . London Review of Books . 31 . 21 . | Book: Blake Bailey . Bailey, Blake . Blake Bailey . Cheever: A Life . . 2009 . 978-0-330-43790-5 . | ||
| 2010 | Tóibín, Colm . 14 January 2010 . The Genius of Thom Gunn . The New York Review of Books . LVII . 1 . | Book: Thom Gunn . Gunn, Thom . Thom Gunn . Kleinzahler, August . August Kleinzahler . Selected Poems . . 2009 . 978-0374258597 .
. Greville, Fulke . Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke . Gunn, Thom . Thom Gunn . Selected Poems of Fulke Greville . . 2009 . 9780226308463 . ; Book: Weiner, Joshua . Joshua Weiner . At the Barriers: On the Poetry of Thom Gunn . . 2009 . 978-0-226-89043-2 . | ||
| 2011 | Tóibín, Colm . 29 September 2011 . The Mysterious Powers of the Word . The New York Review of Books . LVIII . 14 . | Book: Nadine Gordimer . Gordimer, Nadine . Nadine Gordimer . Life Times: Stories, 1952–2007 . . 2011 . 978-0374270537 .
. Gordimer, Nadine . Nadine Gordimer . Telling Times: Writing and Living, 1950–2008 . . 2010 . 978-0-393-06628-9 . | ||
| 2011 | Tóibín, Colm . 3 November 2011 . Mann v. Mann . London Review of Books . 33 . 21 . | Book: Evelyn Juers . Juers, Evelyn . Evelyn Juers . House of Exile: War, Love and Literature, from Berlin to Los Angeles . . 2011 . 978-1-84614-461-5 . | ||
| 2012 | Tóibín, Colm . 10 May 2012 . Going Beyond the Limits . The New York Review of Books . LIX . 8 . | Book: Julian Barnes . Barnes, Julian . Julian Barnes . . . 2011 . 978-0-224-09415-3 . | ||
| 2012 | Tóibín, Colm . 13 September 2012 . A Man of No Mind . London Review of Books . 34 . 17 . | Book: Vargas Llosa, Mario . Mario Vargas Llosa . Grossman, Edith . Edith Grossman . . . 2012 . 978-0-571-27571-7 . | ||
| 2012 | News: Tóibín, Colm . 9 December 2012 . The Book of Kells by Bernard Meehan – review: A scholarly update of a book illustrated by monks reveals why it meant so much to James Joyce . The Guardian . | Book: Meehan, Bernard . The Book of Kells . . 2012 . [2] | ||
| 2013 | Tóibín, Colm . 8 August 2013 . Places Never Explained . London Review of Books . 35 . 15 . | Book: Post, Jonathan . The Selected Letters of Anthony Hecht . . 2012 . 978-1-4214-0730-2 . | ||
| 2014 | Tóibín, Colm . 10 July 2014 . Lust and Loss in Madrid: The novels of Javier Marías and Antonio Muñoz Molina . The New York Review of Books . LXI . 12 . | Book: Marías, Javier . Javier Marías . Jull Costa, Margaret . Margaret Jull Costa . . . 2013 . 978-0307960726 .
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| 2014 | Tóibín, Colm . 23 October 2014 . Putting Religion in Its Place . London Review of Books . 36 . 20 . | Book: Marilynne Robinson . Robinson, Marilynne . Marilynne Robinson . . . 2014 . 978-1-84408-880-5 . | ||
| 2015 | Tóibín, Colm . 9 July 2015 . The Hard-Won Truth of the North . The New York Review of Books . LXII . 12 . | Book: Dagerman, Stig . Stig Dagerman . Macpherson Fulton, Robin . Robin Fulton . German Autumn . . 2011 . 978-0816677528 .
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| 2015 | Tóibín, Colm . 17 December 2015 . She Played Hard with Happiness . The New York Review of Books . LXII . 20 . | Book: Lispector, Clarice . Clarice Lispector . Dodson, Katrina . Moser, Benjamin . Benjamin Moser . The Complete Stories . . 2015 . 9780811219631 . | ||
| 2017 | Tóibín, Colm . 11 May 2017 . Shadows & Ghosts . The New York Review of Books . LXIV . 8 . | Book: J. M. Coetzee . Coetzee, J. M. . J. M. Coetzee . . . 2017 . 978-0735222663 . | ||
| 2017 | News: Tóibín, Colm . 6 July 2017 . Joyce in Court and The Ulysses Trials review . The Guardian . | Book: Adrian Hardiman . Hardiman, Adrian . Adrian Hardiman . Joyce in Court . . 2017 . 9781786691583 .
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| 2018 | Tóibín, Colm . 22 February 2018 . . The New York Review of Books . 65 . 3 . 8–11 . 2018-06-22-->. | Book: Jasanoff, Maya . Maya Jasanoff . The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World . Penguin. | ||
| 2018 | Tóibín, Colm . 13 September 2018 . On Not Being Sylvia Plath . London Review of Books . 40 . 17 . | Book: Thom Gunn . Gunn, Thom . Thom Gunn . Selected Poems . . 2017 . 978-0-571-32769-0 . | ||
| 2018 | Tóibín, Colm . 11 October 2018 . The Aristocracy's Swann Song . The New York Review of Books . LXV . 15 . | Book: Caroline Weber (writer) . Weber, Caroline . Caroline Weber (writer) . Proust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siècle Paris . . 2018 . 978-0307961785 . | ||
| 2020 | Tóibín, Colm . 7 May 2020 . Wobble in My Mind . London Review of Books . 42 . 9 . | Book: Hamilton, Saskia . Saskia Hamilton . The Dolphin Letters, 1970–79: Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Lowell and Their Circle . . 2020 . 978-0-571-35741-3 .
| ||
| 2021 | Tóibín, Colm . 10 June 2021 . We Must Be Light! . The New York Review of Books . LXVIII . 10 . | Book: Hammer, Langdon . Yenser, Stephen . Stephen Yenser . A Whole World: Letters from James Merrill . . 2021 . 978-1-101-87550-6 . | ||
| 2021 | News: Tóibín, Colm . 1 August 2021 . The Pages by Hugo Hamilton review – a book with a story to tell . The Guardian . | Book: Hugo Hamilton (writer) . Hamilton, Hugo . Hugo Hamilton (writer) . The Pages . . 2021 . 978-0008451660 . | ||
| 2021 | Tóibín, Colm . 12 August 2021 . I haven't been I . London Review of Books . 43 . 16 . | Book: Richard Zenith . Zenith, Richard . Richard Zenith . Pessoa: An Experimental Life . . 2021 . 978-0-241-53413-7 . | ||
| 2022 | Tóibín, Colm . 27 January 2022 . Snail Slow . London Review of Books . 44 . 2 . | Book: Shovlin, Frank . The Letters of John McGahern . . 2021 . 978-0-571-32666-2 . | ||
| 2023 | Tóibín, Colm . 7 September 2023 . Arruginated . London Review of Books . 45 . 17 . | Book: Slote, Sam . Mamigonian, Marc A. . Turner, John . Annotations to James Joyce's 'Ulysses' . . 2022 . 978-0-19-886458-5 . | ||
| 2023 | Tóibín, Colm . 21 December 2023 . In the Streets of Barcelona . The New York Review of Books . LXX . 20 . | Book: Goytisolo, Luis . Luis Goytisolo . Riley, Brendan . . . 2022 . 978-1628973983 . | ||
| Year | Article | Subject | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | News: Tóibín, Colm . 17 February 2012 . Colm Tóibín: writers and their families . The Guardian . | Himself and his family; his novel The Heather Blazing | With discursions onto W. B. Yeats; V. S. Naipaul; Jorge Luis Borges; George Moore; James Joyce; John Millington Synge; Henry James; the Mann family; James Baldwin; Samuel Beckett |
| 2012 | News: Tóibín, Colm . 19 October 2012 . The inspiration for The Testament of Mary . The Guardian . | His novel The Testament of Mary | On Mary, mother of Jesus[3] |
| 2013 | Tóibín, Colm . 23 May 2013 . Those Dickens Kids: What Happened? . The New York Review of Books . LX . 9 . | His novel The South | |
| 2014 | News: Tóibín, Colm . 2 October 2014 . Colm Tóibín: the literature of grief . The Guardian . | His novel Nora Webster | With discursions onto Mary Lavin's short stories; Hamlet; Anne Carson, Euripides, Sophocles and Fiona Shaw; C. S. Lewis, Julian Barnes and Joyce Carol Oates; Joan Didion and Francisco Goldman; Nadine Gordimer and Juan Goytisolo |
| Year | Article | Subject | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Tóibín, Colm . 9 June 1994 . How many nipples had Graham Greene? . London Review of Books . 16 . 11 . | Graham Greene | Auctioning his letters |
| 2001 | Tóibín, Colm . 9 August 2001 . Lady Gregory's Toothbrush . The New York Review of Books . XLVIII . 13 . | ||
| 2001 | Tóibín, Colm . 20 September 2001 . The Last Witness . London Review of Books . 23 . 18 . | James Baldwin | Also covers Martin Luther King, the civil rights movement and William Styron |
| 2006 | Tóibín, Colm . 9 February 2006 . Henry James's New York . The New York Review of Books . LIII . 2 . | Henry James | |
| 2006 | Tóibín, Colm . 27 April 2006 . Happy Birthday, Sam! . The New York Review of Books . LIII . 7 . | Samuel Beckett | Including his attendance at a lecture by Carl Jung |
| 2007 | Tóibín, Colm . 5 April 2007 . My Darlings . London Review of Books . 29 . 7 . | Samuel Beckett | His Irish actors |
| 2007 | Tóibín, Colm . 19 July 2007 . Creating 'The Portrait of a Lady' . The New York Review of Books . LIV . 12 . | Henry James (and George Eliot) | |
| 2008 | Tóibín, Colm . 20 March 2008 . The Art of Being Found Out . London Review of Books . 30 . 6 . | Henry James | |
| 2008 | Tóibín, Colm . 23 October 2008 . James Baldwin & Barack Obama . The New York Review of Books . LV . 16 . | James Baldwin | |
| 2009 | Web site: Tóibín, Colm . 26 October 2009 . Hopkins: The Odd Man Out . The New York Review of Books (online) . | Gerard Manley Hopkins | |
| 2011 | Tóibín, Colm . 17 March 2011 . The Importance of Aunts . London Review of Books . 33 . 6 . | (in the 19th-century novel) | |
| 2012 | News: Tóibín, Colm . 15 June 2012 . Colm Tóibín on Joyce's Dublin: city of dreamers and chancers . The Guardian . | Dubliners | Published the day before Bloomsday, in a month when James Joyce's short story collection was resissued |
| 2012 | News: Tóibín, Colm . 10 August 2012 . Brian Friel: trapped in silence . The Guardian . | Brian Friel | |
| 2013 | Web site: Tóibín, Colm . 22 February 2013 . The Sweet Troubles of Proust . The New York Review of Books (online) . | Marcel Proust | |
| 2013 | News: Tóibín, Colm . 30 August 2013 . Seamus Heaney's books were events in our lives . The Guardian . | Seamus Heaney | His generosity; Dennis O'Driscoll; Peter Brook; the change in Heaney's work after his eighth collection Seeing Things (1991) |
| 2014 | News: Tóibín, Colm . 18 January 2014 . Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star is as bewildering as it is brilliant . The Guardian . | The Hour of the Star | In the month that this, with other Clarice Lipsector titles, was reissued |
| 2015 | Web site: Tóibín, Colm . 15 April 2015 . Gawking at Quixote . The New York Review of Books (online) . | Don Quixote | |
| 2015 | News: Tóibín, Colm . 28 August 2015 . I embraced Henry James's fight against complacency . The Guardian . | The Ambassadors | The effects this Henry James novel had on Tóibín |
| 2016 | News: Tóibín, Colm . 29 December 2016 . James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist, 100 years on . The Guardian . | A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | 29 December 2016 was the centenary of its publication. |
| 2016 | News: Tóibín, Colm . 29 December 2016 . Colm Tóibín on that fine writer Anthony Cronin . The Irish Times . | Anthony Cronin | See below |
| 2017 | News: Tóibín, Colm . 24 January 2017 . Anthony Cronin obituary . The Guardian . | Anthony Cronin | Obituary for "an important mentor" of Tóibín |
| 2020 | News: Tóibín, Colm . 9 October 2020 . Louise Glück: Colm Tóibín on a brave and truthful Nobel winner . The Guardian . | Louise Glück | 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature |
| 2023 | News: Tóibín, Colm . 17 October 2023 . Louise Glück: a poet who never shied away from silence, pain or fear . The Guardian . | Louise Glück | Response to Glück's death |
| 2024 | Web site: Tóibín, Colm . 2 August 2024 . The Pitch of Passion . The New York Review of Books (online) . | Go Tell It on the Mountain | 2 August 2024 was the centennial of James Baldwin's birth. |
| Year | Article | Subject | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Tóibín, Colm . 6 January 1994 . In the Pyrenees . London Review of Books . 16 . 1 . | ||
| 1998 | Tóibín, Colm . 30 July 1998 . Erasures . London Review of Books . 20 . 15 . | The Great Famine | |
| 2001 | Tóibín, Colm . 29 November 2001 . 11 September . London Review of Books . 23 . 23 . | September 11 attacks | Opposing Mary Beard's excuses for the September 11 attackers |
| 2009 | Tóibín, Colm . 15 December 2009 . Missing the Point . London Review of Books . | Art, allegory and urination | |
| 2021 | Tóibín, Colm . 21 January 2021 . The Bergoglio Smile . London Review of Books . 43 . 2 . | Pope Francis | |
| width=25% | Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Cush Gap, 2007" | 2011 | The Times Literary Supplement[4] | Cush Gap, a location in County Wexford, is also mentioned in works such as Brooklyn. | ||
| "Miró"; "In San Clemente"; "Lost for Words"; "Face"; "The Torturer's Art" | 2017 | The Times Literary Supplement[5] | |||
| "Father & Son" | 2021 | The New York Review of Books[6] | |||
| "Vinegar Hill" | 2022 | The New Yorker[7] | |||
| width=25% | Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "A Priest in the Family" | 2004 | London Review of Books[8] | Mothers and Sons | ||
| "Barcelona, 1975" | 2005 | The Dublin Review[9] | On the first orgy that Toibín attended at the age of twenty, at the house of an older painter. "The story is entirely real", Tóibín later said.[10] | ||
| "One Minus One" | 2007 | One Minus One. The New Yorker. Colm. Tóibín. 30 April 2007. 91. 5. 78–83. | About the death of his mother | ||
| "Sleep" | 2015 | Sleep. The New Yorker. Colm. Tóibín. 23 March 2015. 91. 5. 78–83. | |||
| "Summer of '38" | 2013 | Summer of '38. The New Yorker. Colm. Tóibín. 4 March 2013. 89. 3. 58–65. | |||