The south

In 1950, Katherine Proctor leaves Ireland and her family for Barcelona, determined to become a painter.

There she meets Miguel, an anarchist veteran of the Spanish Civil War, and proceeds to build a life with him.

But Katherine cannot escape her past, as Michael Graves, a fellow Irish emigre to Spain, forces her to re-examine all her relationships: to her lover, her art and the homeland she only thought she knew. `This is a strong and moving work of fiction about the hard truths of changing one's life.

Colm Toibin, like his characters, never says too much and never lets us grow too comfortable.

A grand achievement' Don DeLillo `A broad and beautifully worked canvas . . . An imaginative, deeply felt and evocative tale' Sunday Times