Colm Tóibín is a master of the short story, able to summon an extraordinary intensity of emotion in a brief tale. Described as “his generation’s most gifted writer of love’s complicated, contradictory power” (Los Angeles Times), he brings to these stories an astonishing clarity and compassion. In “The Journey to Galway,” a mother learns of the death of her son, a fighter pilot in WWII, and must travel from Dublin to share the news with his wife and their three now fatherless children. In “Sleep,” published in The New Yorker, two lovers part as one of them cannot acknowledge or face his grief and fear after the death of his brother. And in the title story, death, again, is a central character as Maurice Webster travels to Dublin from Enniscorthy to petition the health minister for access to a new drug being tested for tuberculosis. Maurice’s younger brother is dying of TB, and this is the only hope. Set in Spain, Ireland, and America, these gorgeous stories explore longing, estrangement from family, grief, the pull of the past, and complex, transcendent love. This collection includes: - “The Journey to Galway” (originally published in Faber Anthology) - “A Free Man” (new) - “Sleep” (originally published in The New Yorker) - “The News from Dublin” (originally published in Faber Anthology) - “A Sum of Money” (new) - “Barton Springs” (originally published in Marlene Dumas catalogue) - “Summer of ’38” (originally published in The New Yorker) - “Five Bridges” (originally published in The New Yorker) - “The Catalan Girls” (new)