《空荡荡的家》内容简介

　　《空荡荡的家》是托宾第二部短篇小说集。托宾以其温柔而独特的敏感，刻画了一系列人物未被言说、潜意识中的渴望。他用爱、孤独和欲望将不同时代的人联系在了一起：从当代爱尔兰，到一九七零年代的西班牙，到十九世纪的英格兰。从一个在陌生的小镇寻求安定的年轻巴基斯坦移民，到那个不情不愿地回到都柏林的爱尔兰女人，托宾笔下的每一个故事包含着整个世界：那是逃离过去、回到家庭的故事，是亲情失而复得的故事。

　　托宾擅长刻画沉默中的情感，未被承认、难以启齿的亲密关系。《空荡荡的家》再次证明，托宾是“他这一代表现‘爱的复杂与矛盾’最有才华的作家”（《洛杉矶时报》）。

　　作者简介

　　科尔姆·托宾是具有国际声誉的爱尔兰当代著名作家。他一九五五年生于爱尔兰东南部一个积极投身爱尔兰独立运动的家庭，毕业于都柏林大学，主修历史和英文。

　　自一九九〇年发表处女作小说《南方》以来，托宾已出版六部长篇小说、两部部短篇小说集、一部戏剧和多部游记、散文集。《黑水灯塔船》、《大师》先后入围布克奖决选名单，后者荣获IMPAC都柏林国际文学奖（2006）。《布鲁克林》获二〇〇九年度英国科斯塔最佳小说奖。

　　托宾的作品主要描写爱尔兰社会、移居他乡者的生活、个人身份与性取向的探索与坚持等。他文笔优雅恬淡，内敛含蓄，被誉为“英语文学中的语言大师”。

　　托宾先后在斯坦福大学、得克萨斯大学、普林斯顿大学教授写作。从二〇一一年九月开始，他接替马丁•艾米斯，担任曼彻斯特大学创意写作教授。二〇一一年，英国《观察家报》将其选入“英国最重要的三百位知识分子”。目前，托宾担任哥伦比亚大学英文与比较文学系梅隆讲席教授。

An introduction to the Empty Home

The Empty Home is Tobin's second collection of short stories. With tenderness and unique sensitivity, Tobin portrays the unspoken, subconscious desires of a series of characters. He brings together people from different eras: from contemporary Ireland, to Spain in the 1970s, to 19th-century England. From the young Pakistani immigrant seeking stability in a strange town to the Irishwoman who reluctantly returns to Dublin, each of Tobin's stories encompasses the whole world: the story of escaping the past and returning to family, the story of family lost and found.

Tobin is good at portraying emotions in silence, unacknowledged, unspoken intimacy. "Empty Home" proves once again that Tobin is "the most talented writer of his generation on the 'complexities and contradictions of love'" (Los Angeles Times).

About the author

Colm Tobin is a famous contemporary Irish writer with an international reputation. Born in southeast Ireland in 1955 into a family active in the Irish independence movement, he graduated from University College Dublin, majoring in history and English.

Since the publication of his first novel, The South, in 1990, Tobin has published six novels, two collections of short stories, a play, and several books of travel and prose. Blackwater Lighthouse Ship and The Master were shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, with the latter winning the IMPAC Dublin International Literary Prize (2006). Brooklyn won the 2009 Costa Award for Best British novel.

Tobin's works are mainly about Irish society, the lives of expatriates, and the exploration and persistence of personal identity and sexual orientation. He is known as "the master of language in English literature" because of his elegant, quiet and reserved style.

Tobin taught writing at Stanford University, the University of Texas, and Princeton University. From September 2011 he succeeded Martin Amis as Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Manchester. In 2011, the Observer selected him as one of the "300 most important intellectuals in Britain". Tobin is currently Mellon Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.