Mothers and Sons (book)


Mothers and Sons is a collection of short stories written by Irish writer Colm Tóibín and published in 2006. The book was published in hardback by Picador, and each of its stories explores an aspect of the mother-son relationship. All take place in contemporary Ireland, except that the last and longest, "A Long Winter", takes place in Catalonia perhaps twenty years after the Spanish Civil War. The stories are as follows:
"The Use of Reason"
"A Song"
"The Name of the Game"
"Famous Blue Raincoat"
"A Priest in the Family"
"A Journey"
"Three Friends"
"A Summer Job"
"A Long Winter"
Some of the stories in Mothers and Sons, like other Tóibín fiction, explore homosexuality in Ireland. In addition to mother-son relationships, Tóibín considers gayness alongside Catholicism, and how the two can be compatible in an Irish context.
Most of the stories appeared in print prior to the book's publication in popular literary periodicals such as The Guardian, The London Review of Books, and The Dublin Review.
Tóibín has spoken about the economic disparity between short story collections and novels, the former being unlikely to fetch as much popular interest, or, therefore, money, which is the reason he writes in the first place.