Quizlit’s Book of the Month June 2026 is the short story collection The News from Dublin by Colm Tóibín. Nine exquisite stories, beautifully written, make up this brilliant collection from Irish writer Colm Tóibín.
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Book of the Month June 2026
The News from Dublin by Colm Tóibín
In The News from Dublin, a beautiful collection of short stories from the bestselling author of Brooklyn and Long Island, Colm Tóibín delves into the days and nights of those living far from home: lives of great longing, at a great distance from past lives and past selves.
A woman in Galway hears of the death of her son in the First World War. An Irishman seeks anonymity in Barcelona, haunted by crimes he has committed. A man goes to Dublin from Enniscorthy to implore the Minister for Health for a special favour. A young woman is pregnant during the Spanish Civil War. An undocumented worker finds himself living an illegal life and must leave San Francisco, and his child, after thirty years in America. Three sisters who have been living in Argentina decide to return to Catalonia.
In “The Journey to Galway,” a mother who has learned of the death of her son, a fighter pilot in World War I, travels to Galway to inform his wife and their three now fatherless children. “Sleep,” originally published in The New Yorker, explores the rift between two lovers as one of them cannot reckon with his grief and fear after the death of his brother. Death, again, is a central character in the title story, “The News from Dublin,” as Maurice Webster travels to Dublin to try to save his younger brother who is dying of tuberculosis. Maurice must petition the health minister for access to a new experimental drug, and this is the only hope.
Tóibín’s stories are rich with the complexities of family dynamics, the haunting pull of the past, and the quiet revelations that define our lives. His characters, whether navigating the aftermath of war, or forbidden love, or the desires of a girl in Catalan, or the quiet struggles mundane life, are rendered with illuminating, unforgettable empathy and insight.
“Magic… haunting, evocative, sad, rich with complex humanity.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Tóibín’s attention to language equals the empathy he pays his thoroughly authentic characters, so summarizing their stories only threatens to blunt their exquisiteness, because half the pleasure of reading them comes from absorbing the complicated structures he weaves… He is in top form here.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Love in all its guises—nostalgic, unabashedly erotic, perhaps even autobiographical—can be found in The Empty Family, including a deft reimagining of Lady Gregory’s tryst with the poet Wilfred Blunt, recounted with more than one Jamesian flourish.” —Vogue
“Tóibín lures us into stories with characters who experience true revelation, no matter how quiet or small. With masterful restraint, he lays bare the drama of everyday life.” —Houston Chronicle
“Nine achingly beautiful stories… With The Empty Family Tóibín takes the morass of humanity and with infinite compassion distills it into art.” —The Miami Herald
Also by Colm Tóibín
The Magician
The Magician tells the story of Thomas Mann, whose life was filled with great acclaim and contradiction. He would find himself on the wrong side of history in the First World War, cheerleading the German army, but have a clear vision of the future in the second, anticipating the horrors of Nazism.
He would have six children and keep his homosexuality hidden; he was a man forever connected to his family and yet bore witness to the ravages of suicide. He would write some of the greatest works of European literature, and win the Nobel Prize, but would never return to the country that inspired his creativity.
Brooklyn
Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the hard years following World War Two. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America, she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind.
Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, who loves the Dodgers and his big Italian family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future.
If you enjoyed our Book of the Month June 2026, check out 5 Incredible New Books for June 2026