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Colm Tóibín

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The South: A Novel Paperback – October 30, 2012

by Colm Toibin (Author)

609

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A highly acclaimed novel from the author of Brooklyn and an “immensely gifted and accomplished writer” (The Washington Post), about an Irishwoman who creates a new life in post-war Spain.

In 1950, Katherine Proctor leaves Ireland for Barcelona, determined to escape her family and become a painter. There she meets Miguel, an anarchist veteran of the Spanish Civil War, and begins to build a life with him. But Katherine cannot escape her past, as Michael Graves, a fellow Irish émigré in Spain, forces her to reexamine all her relationships: to her lover, her art, and the homeland she only thought she knew.

The South is a novel of classic themes—of art and exile, and of the seemingly irreconcilable yearnings for love and freedom—to which Colm Tóibín brings a new, passionate sensitivity.

Print length

240 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Scribner
Publication date

October 30, 2012
Dimensions

5.25 x 0.7 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

1476704481
ISBN-13

978-1476704487
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Tóibín’s talent is amazing…a stunning novel.”—The Washington Post Book World

“A book of sustained lyrical beauty and power.”—Chicago Tribune

“A strong and moving work of fiction about the hard truths of changing one’s life. A grand achievement.”—Don DeLillo

“Tóibín’s first novel is a broad and beautifully worked canvas…an imaginative, deeply felt, and evocative tale.”—The Sunday Times

About the Author

Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; The Testament of Mary; and Nora Webster; as well as two story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and has been named as the Laureate for Irish Fiction for 2022–2024 by the Arts Council of Ireland. Three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Tóibín lives in Dublin and New York.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner; Reissue edition (October 30, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1476704481
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1476704487
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.7 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #558,384 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,090 in Historical British & Irish Literature
- #8,482 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- #27,689 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
609

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Colm Tóibín

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Colm Toibin is the author of ten novels, including The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; The Testament of Mary, and Nora Webster, as well as two story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and has been named as the laureate for Irish fiction for 2022-2025 by the Arts Council of Ireland. Three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Toibin lives in Dublin and New York.

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4 out of 5

609 global ratings

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Michael J Helquist

A Complex and Haunting Story

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2016

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The South is author Colm Toibin’s first novel, and it was an auspicious arrival in 1990. Brooding and anxious, his protagonist Katherine Proctor seeks a new future even at the cost of abandoning her husband and child in Ireland. She is motivated to get far away, to remove herself from small town values, from the deeply ingrained “troubles” in Ireland, and the low expectations for success that prevail like the cold, heavy mists over the sea and fields. She appears in Barcelona and wanders uncertain and listless in a city and country every bit as haunted by its fractious past as Ireland. How she struggles forward and seeks resolution through painting pulls readers into her predicaments to the end.

Interiority defines this story as Toibin explores the internal musing, questioning, fantasizing, and circular thinking of his primary character. At times the story feels claustrophobic, other times it induces a kind of dream state like being lost in the mountain fog above Barcelona. A predominant theme here is abandonment, and Toibin presents it from the perspective of those leaving and those left behind. It tears at the soul and leaves yearning and questioning. A mother abandons her daughter who later leaves behind her son. There’s never a full resolution but sometimes an earnest attempt to understand and bridge the rifts of the past.

Toibin is one of our greatest English-writing authors, and it’s a pleasure to explore his early writing with this novel of The South.

\Michael Helquist, MARIE EQUI: Radical Politics and Outlaw Passions

8 people found this helpful

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Linda

Somber Tale

Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2009

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The South, the story of an Irish woman who falls in love with a Spanish anarchist in 1950's Barcelona, is captivating but tragic.
Katherine Proctor, the Irish woman, was a well developed character and, throughout the novel, I was interested in her
and cared about her. Often I wondered at her decisions because her chosen life with Miguel is poverty stricken, at times
violent and sometimes impossible to continue. The most fascinating aspect for me was the revelation of the complex
events of the Spanish Civil War and, especially, the way Franco continued to hunt down those who had fought against
his Nationalist army. The plot moves slowly, but that was not a problem for me. Overall,though, the book is a sad one; it begins
this way and only becomes more so. Yet, I still feel it was valuable to read.

12 people found this helpful

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KC

Insight into the landscape and religious politics of Ireland and Spain

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2013

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I like the insight Colm gave us into the beauty of two European countries. I never really thought about a connection between Ireland and Spain.
The character development was a bit clunky, as the writer took too many jumps forward and back to tell us about Katherine. As a reader, I felt unrealistically surprised with the way Miguel met his demise, as we didn't get enough background on him up to that point.
All in all, I would recommend this book to readers whose imagination, or knowledge of history in this part of the world, will help them fill in the blanks not given to us by the writer.

2 people found this helpful

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John Ashton

A novel that speaks of a Catalonia suffering Francoism (as today)

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2023

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Well worth a read. One of genius Colm Toibin's early works

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Sheburnz

A dramatic story calmly told without judgment.

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2014

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A very direct storytelling, dramatic yet calmly told. No moralism. I read it after visiting Barcelona and Ireland which may have enhanced my reading, but I found in it a strong, sometimes seemingly cold yet also passionate female character, who doesn't justify any of her behavior. The flashbacks that reveal her history are transitioned easily in and out of her story.
Not all my questions about the character are answered yet I was still satisfied.
Having read this first novel by Colm Toibim I'm drawn to read more of his work

2 people found this helpful

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Dana C. Moriarty

Love and Art in Ireland and Spain

Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2022

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An Irish painter leaves her husband and young son to search for her creative self in The South - Barcelona, Spain. Set in post Spanish civil war, the protagonist meets a former freedom fighter and ambitious artist who leads her on a journey of personal and artistic discovery with tragic consequences. Moving and profoundly expressed, Toibin’s verbal imagery flows in sensuous layers like liquified paint on canvas.

Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2016

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Interesting characters. Good writing.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Very well done.

Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2023

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I like this author. I have read several of his books, and this one did not disappoint.
His character development is such that you could pick the person out in a crowd. Very impactful story.

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elbalrogdemoria

Ni fu ni fa

Reviewed in Spain on February 21, 2018

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Lo compré para una clase se inglés y ni fu ni fa. El escritor sabe crear ambiente, pero la historia no me llamó mucho...

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sl

Wieder ein Volltreffer

Reviewed in Germany on October 2, 2016

Verified Purchase

Dies ist das dritte Buch von Colm Toibin, das ich gelesen habe. Es geht um eine Frau, die versucht, ihren Weg zu gehen, mit einer schwierigen Vergangenheit in ihrer Heimat und die in ihrer neuen Heimat von der dortigen schwierigen Vergangenheit eingeholt wird. Colmar Toibin entwirft und schreibt die Geschichte mit schlichter Klarheit und Simplizität. Es ist kein Wort zuviel oder zuwenig und er gibt damit dem Leser viel Raum für eigene Gedanken. Er beschreibt, ohne zu werten. Das war sicherlich nicht das letzte Buch, das ich von ihm gelesen habe.

3 people found this helpful

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Jeanine Parker

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada on November 5, 2014

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Toibin is one of my favourite authors and this is one of his best books. Loved it.

One person found this helpful

Kate Hopkins

Sensitive Portrait of a Woman Artist

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 11, 2012

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I read this book thanks to the excellent review posted by Susie B and would like to thank her for leading me to it! Colm Toibin's first novel is a beautiful account of the life of a woman painter. In her early thirties, Katherine Proctor abruptly abandons her Irish farm, melancholic husband and young son, and escapes to Barcelona. There, she begins to train as a painter, discovering that she has real talent. After a while she becomes the lover of another painter, Miguel. In a Barcelona bar, they meet up with another painter, an Irishman called Michael Graves, who comes from Katherine's home town. Michael Graves becomes a regular visitor first to Katherine and Miguel's room in Barcelona, and later, when they move to a remote cottage in the Pyrenees, stays with them there often. Years pass and Katherine begins to regard Spain as her home. She and Miguel have a daughter, and Katherine struggles to continue with her work as an artist while caring for the child and her lover. She is content, and believes that she has found tranquillity. But trouble is not far away. Miguel was a prominent Republican fighter in the Spanish Civil War and, quite unexpectedly, his past catches up with him. When tragedy strikes, Katherine is left alone, first to return to Barcelona, and then to Ireland. There, over the years, her friendship with Michael Graves develops and changes, she forges a tentative peace with her son, and continues to evolve as an artist, gradually gaining recognition.

Toibin's writing style is absolutely stunning. He brings Barcelona, the Spanish countryside, Dublin and rural Ireland wonderfully to life, in economic and elegant prose. He is also brilliant at getting inside the minds of his characters. Katherine is a truly original character - not a traditional heroine, perhaps - but very sympathetic, and very believable. Toibin writes well about her art, with none of the tendency to dryness that can creep in when describing artworks (a problem in Francesca Kay's otherwise excellent 'An Equal Stillness'). Michael Graves, once tubercular, working-class to Katherine's middle-class, Catholic to her Protestant, was a fascinating figure; I particularly liked the scenes where Toibin wrote about his love of music, and when he talked about his past. The historical material about Spain and Ireland was also good. I would have liked to know more about why Katherine was so drawn to Miguel (clearly a sexually compelling figure, but someone who didn't really support her as an artist) but I suppose her feelings here were deliberately meant to be slightly mysterious. I thought the structure of the book - several parts each dealing with a separate period of Katherine's life - worked well, and the ending gave me a feeling of great hope. Altogether a wonderful book - I can't believe it was his first - and I really look forward to reading more Colm Toibin.

4 people found this helpful

Frank Lepave

An adventure not necessary or possible today in Europe

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 10, 2019

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Although this book is a novel about the life of a painter escaping from a loveless marriage in Ireland to freedom and poverty in Franco era Spain it could be rewritten for different countries today. It is almost impossible to understand the pressures on the characters in Modern Europe. Very sparse elegant writing but very hard to understand the restrained emotions of the characters who were all damaged by the civil wars of these formerly intolerant pious countries.

One person found this helpful

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