Colm Tóibín was born in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford in 1955 and educated at University College Dublin.
He is the author of five novels: The South, (1990) winner of The Irish Times Literature Prize in 1991; The Heather Blazing, winner of the Encore Award for the best second novel in 1992; The Story of the Night (1997); The Blackwater Lightship (1999), shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize; and The Master (2004), shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and winner of the Los Angeles Times Novel of the Year and the Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger in France; and The Testament of Mary (2012), longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2013.
Tóibín’s books have been translated into 25 languages.