A modern classic work of Irish literature, this award-winning novel is an exploration of love, art and identity.

This was the night train to Barcelona, some hours before the dawn. This was 1950, late September. I had left my husband. I had left my home.

Katherine Proctor has dared to leave her family in Ireland and reach out for a new life. Determined to become an artist, she flees to Spain, where she meets Miguel, a passionate man who has fought for his own freedoms. They retreat to the quiet intensity of the mountains and begin to build a life together.

But as Miguel’s past catches up with him, Katherine too is forced to re-examine her relationships: with her lover, her painting and the homeland she only thought she knew. . .

The South was Colm Tóibín's debut novel, winning the Irish Times First Fiction Award in 1991.

'An imaginative, deeply felt and evocative tale' – The Sunday Times

'Colm Tóibín writes prose of a heartbreaking beauty'– Hilary Mantel

Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

Read Long Island, the Sunday Times bestselling sequel to Colm Tóibín's beloved Brooklyn.

A broad and beautifully worked canvas . . . An imaginative, deeply felt and evocative tale * Sunday Times *
A daring, imaginative feat; the world it conjures is at once familiar and strange, and strangely moving. A splendid first novel -- John Banville
This is a strong and moving work of fiction about the hard truths of changing one's life. Colm Tóibín, like his characters, never says too much and never lets us grow too comfortable. A grand achievement -- Don DeLillo
Colm Tóibín writes prose of a heartbreaking beauty. -- Hilary Mantel
Clever, evocative and intelligent * Irish Times *
The story is told with spare, simple elegance * London Review of Books *

Colm Tóibín was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of eleven novels, including The Master, Brooklyn, and The Magician, and two collections of stories. He has been three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2021, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature. Tóibín was appointed the Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024.