LIVE from NYPL: COLM TOIBIN: The Empty Family, A converation with Paul Holdengraber

This program is co-presented with The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.

Colm Tóibín’s new collection of short stories, The Empty Family, demonstrates a profound understanding of human fragility and resilience – and the price we pay for both.

In "Two Women," a brief encounter reminds a formidable woman of her long-lost lover. In "Silence," Tóibín revisits one of his favorite subjects, Henry James, who appears in this story at the same table as Lady Gregory. In "The Street," Tóibín recounts a secret gay love affair between two Pakistani workers in Spain – both lonely in their adopted country, and both longing for a human connection far from home.

COLM TOIBIN was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of six novels including The Blackwater Lightship, The Master, and Brooklyn. Tóibín is the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Costa Book Award. He was a 2001 fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center in The New York Public Library. He currently teaches at Princeton University and divides his time between Dublin and New York.

PAUL HOLDENGRABER is the Director of LIVE from the NYPL.