Colm Tóibín captures the exquisite anguish of a man whose artistic gifts led to triumph but whose private life was haunted by loneliness and longing.

In January 1895, Henry James anticipates the opening of his first play in London. He has never been so vulnerable, nor felt so deeply unsuited to the public gaze. When the production fails, he returns, chastened, to his writing desk. The result is a string of masterpieces, but they are produced at a high personal cost. As he circulated in the grand parlours and palazzos of Europe, Henry James was lauded and admired, yet his attempts at intimacy inevitably failed him and those he tried to love.

Shortlisted
The Man Booker Prize 2004
Published by
Picador
Publication date
Colm Tóibín

Colm Tóibín

About the Author

Colm Tóibín is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic and poet. He was born in County Wexford, Ireland.
More about Colm Tóibín

Other nominated books by Colm Tóibín

The Testament of Mary
Brooklyn
The Blackwater Lightship