A Guest at the Feast: Essays
Written by Colm Toibin
Narrated by Colm Toibin
5/5
()
About this audiobook
From one of the most engaging and brilliant writers of our time comes a “not to be missed” (LitHub) collection of eleven essays about growing up in Ireland during radical change; about cancer, priests, popes, homosexuality, and literature.
“IT ALL STARTED WITH MY BALLS.” So begins Colm Tóibín’s fabulously compelling essay, laced with humor, about his diagnosis and treatment for cancer. Tóibín survives, but he has entered, as he says, “the age of one ball.” The second essay in this seductive collection is a memoir about growing up in the 1950s and ’60s in the small town of Enniscorthy in County Wexford, the setting for many of Tóibín’s novels and stories, including Brooklyn, The Blackwater Lightship, and Nora Webster. Tóibín describes his education by priests, several of whom were condemned years later for abuse. He writes about Irish history and literature, and about the long, tragic journey toward legal and social acceptance of homosexuality.
In Part Two, Tóibín profiles three complex and vexing popes—John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis. And in Part Three, he writes about a trio of authors who reckon with religion in their fiction. The final essay, “Alone in Venice,” is a gorgeous account of Tóibín’s journey, at the height of the pandemic, to the beloved city where he has set some of his most dazzling scenes. The streets, canals, churches, and museums were empty. He had them to himself, an experience both haunting and exhilarating.
“A tantalizing glimpse into Tóibín’s full fictional powers,” (The Sunday Times, London) A Guest at the Feast is both an intimate encounter with a supremely creative artist and a glorious celebration of writing.
Editor's Note
Moving and sharply funny.…
Tóibín, the award-winning Irish author who brought us titles like “The Magician” and “Brooklyn,” delivers a sharply funny essay collection. Covering topics like beating cancer (thus entering “the age of one ball”), growing up in Ireland, religion, and sexuality, Tóibín's talent for moving readers with authentic and profound expression shines through once again.
Colm Toibin
Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island, an Oprah’s Book Club Pick; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; The Testament of Mary; and Nora Webster; as well as two story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and has been named as the Laureate for Irish Fiction for 2022–2024 by the Arts Council of Ireland. Three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Tóibín lives in Dublin and New York.
More audiobooks from Colm Toibin
Long Island Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Magician: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5House of Names: Thalia Book Club Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Heather Blazing: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know: The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats and Joyce Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sun Also Rises Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brooklyn: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5House of Names Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Testament of Mary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New Ways to Kill Your Mother: Writers and Their Families Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Empty Family: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to A Guest at the Feast
Related audiobooks
The Hero of This Book: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lessons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elizabeth Finch Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5All The Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Other Eden Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Strange Eventful History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pete and Alice in Maine: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Absolution: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learning to Talk: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Notes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Western Lane Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Flight: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Larry McMurtry: A Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The White Mosque: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Living Remedy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Life: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5August Blue: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Librarianist: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eastbound Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Faraway World: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Goose: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Heart that Works Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If I Survive You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKünstlers in Paradise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thirst for Salt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Snow Queen: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Biographies For You
The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing into the Wound: Understanding trauma, truth, and language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dad on Pills: Fatherhood and Mental Illness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Marriage Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angela's Ashes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil and Harper Lee Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Papillon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Moveable Feast Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of The Bondwoman's Narrative Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rude Talk in Athens: Ancient Rivals, the Birth of Comedy, and a Writer's Journey through Greece Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5North of Normal: A Memoir of My Wilderness Childhood, My Unusual Family, and How I Survived Both Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5These Precious Days: Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies: How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Intelligence for Dummies: Essays and Other Collected Writings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Baby on the Fire Escape: Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for A Guest at the Feast
5 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very enjoyable listen well put together great to hear actual authors narrated