Nora Webster

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2015 FOLIO PRIZE

The heartbreaking new novel from the author of Brooklyn.

"This is his best yet." Spectator, Books of the Year

"So rich, so observant, so moving" Observer, Books of the Year

"A fine companion piece to his acclaimed novel, Brooklyn ... Subtle and enthralling" Sunday Times, Books of the Year

It is the late 1960s in Ireland. Nora Webster is living in a small town, looking after her four children, trying to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. She is fiercely intelligent, at times difficult and impatient, at times kind, but she is trapped by her circumstances, and waiting for any chance which will lift her beyond them.

Slowly, through the gift of music and the power of friendship, she finds a glimmer of hope and a way of starting again. As the dynamic of the family changes, she seems both fiercely self-possessed but also a figure of great moral ambiguity, making her one of the most memorable heroines in contemporary fiction.

The portrait that is painted in the years that follow is harrowing, piercingly insightful, always tender and deeply true. Nora Webster is a novel that illuminates our own lives in a way that is rare in literature. Its humanity and compassion forge an unforgettable reading experience.

MORE PRAISE FOR NORA WEBSTER

"If there is a more brilliant writer than Toibin working today, I don't know who that would be" Irish Times, Books of the Year

"Tender, delicately oblique in its narration, and exquisitely well-written" The Times

"A luminous, elliptical novel in which everyday life manages, in moments, to approach the mystical" Jennifer Egan, New York Times

"Beautiful and heartbreaking." Independent

"Arresting. As this novel movingly proposes, there are no ordinary women and no ordinary lives" Irish Indendent

"The story is so expertly crafted that it achieves a luminous intensity, which lingers long in the memory" Mail on Sunday

"[A] love story and a love letter . . . from one of Ireland's contemporary masters" Observer

"This novel is the real thing, rare and tremendous . . . It does everything we ought to ask of a great novel: that it respond to the fullness of our lives, be as large as life itself" Guardian, Book of the Week