Colm Tóibín (Enniscorthy, 1955) is a writer, journalist, and critic, and one of the most acclaimed voices in contemporary European literature. He is known for his emotionally rich, introspective writing that explores identity, exile, gender, and sexuality – often set within the tensions of Irish cultural life. He began his career in journalism, contributing to the Sunday Independent and The London Review of Books.

His work was first introduced to Italian readers by Fazi Editore, beginning with The South (1999), followed by The Blackwater Lightship (2002), The Story of the Night (2000), and The Heather Blazing (2008). With The Master (2004), a sophisticated reimagining of the life of Henry James, he won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

The international success of Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Novel Award and later adapted into an Oscar-nominated film, confirmed his standing on the global literary stage. The novel was published in Italy by Bompiani in 2009 and Einaudi in 2019. Further acclaimed works followed: The Testament of Mary (2014), finalist for the Man Booker Prize, and Nora Webster (2016).

Since 2018, Tóibín’s books have been published in Italy by Einaudi, including House of Names, and The Magician (2023), a novelised biography of Thomas Mann that earned him the Rathbones Folio Prize. His most recent novel, Long Island (2025), revisits the characters and emotional terrain of Brooklyn, returning to its central themes of migration, homecoming, and personal reckoning.

Tóibín is a member of the Royal Society of Literature and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Since 2022, he has served as Poet Laureate of Ireland, and he currently teaches creative writing at Columbia University in New York. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages. He divides his time between Dublin and New York.