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.
©2012 Colm Toibin (P)2012 Simon & Schuster Audio
"Tóibín’s talent is amazing…a stunning novel." (Washington Post Book World)
"A book of sustained lyrical beauty and power." (Chicago Tribune)
"Tóibín’s first novel is a broad and beautifully worked canvas…an imaginative, deeply felt, and evocative tale." (The Sunday Times)