The South

A modern classic work of Irish literature, this award-winning novel is an exploration of love, art and identity.

This was the night train to Barcelona, some hours before the dawn. This was 1950, late September. I had left my husband. I had left my home.

Katherine Proctor has dared to leave her family in Ireland and reach out for a new life. Determined to become an artist, she flees to Spain, where she meets Miguel, a passionate man who has fought for his own freedoms. They retreat to the quiet intensity of the mountains and begin to build a life together.

But as Miguel’s past catches up with him, Katherine too is forced to re-examine her relationships: with her lover, her painting and the homeland she only thought she knew. . .

The South was Colm Tóibín's debut novel, winning the Irish Times First Fiction Award in 1991.

'An imaginative, deeply felt and evocative tale' – The Sunday Times

'Colm Tóibín writes prose of a heartbreaking beauty'– Hilary Mantel

Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

Read Long Island, the Sunday Times bestselling sequel to Colm Tóibín's beloved Brooklyn.