Each of the nine stories in this beautifully written, intensely intimate collection centers on a transformative moment that alters the delicate balance of power between mother and son, or changes the way they perceive one another. With exquisite grace and eloquence, Tóibín writes of men and women bound by convention, by unspoken emotions, by the stronghold of the past. Many are trapped in lives they would not choose again, if they ever chose at all.

A man buries his mother and converts his grief to desire in one night. A famous singer captivates an audience, yet cannot beguile her own estranged son. And in "A Long Winter," Colm Tóibín's finest piece of cction to date, a young man searches for his mother in the snow-covered mountains where she has sought escape from the husband who controls and confines her.

Winner of numerous awards for his fifth novel, The Master -- including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award -- Tóibín brings to this stunning first collection an acute understanding of human frailty and longing. These are haunting, profoundly moving stories by a writer who is himself a master.

科爾姆•托賓是具有國際聲譽的愛爾蘭當代著名作傢。他一九五五年生於愛爾蘭東南部一個積極投身愛爾蘭獨立運動的傢庭，畢業於都柏林大學，主修曆史和英文。

自一九九〇年發錶處女作小說《南方》以來，托賓已齣版六部長篇小說、兩部部短篇小說集、一部戲劇和多部遊記、散文集。《黑水燈塔船》、《大師》先後入圍布剋奬決選名單，後者榮獲IMPAC都柏林國際文學奬（2006）。《布魯剋林》獲二〇〇九年度英國科斯塔最佳小說奬。

托賓的作品主要描寫愛爾蘭社會、移居他鄉者的生活、個人身份與性取嚮的探索與堅持等。他文筆優雅恬淡，內斂含蓄，被譽為“英語文學中的語言大師”。

托賓先後在斯坦福大學、得剋薩斯大學、普林斯頓大學教授寫作。從二〇一一年九月開始，他接替馬丁•艾米斯，擔任曼徹斯特大學創意寫作教授。二〇一一年，英國《觀察傢報》將其選入“英國最重要的三百位知識分子”。