Douglas Stuart

This is my favourite of Tóibín’s works. Set in the early eighties, Argentina is controlled by oil-rich Americans and power hungry Generals. A young English professor has been living in the shadow of his mother and hiding his sexual desires. When he is liberated by her death, both he, and the country around him, are set into a period of enlightenment and upheaval. The loss and grief in the third act left me reeling for days.