Audiobooks by Colm Toibin

"Acclaimed Irish novelist Colm Tóibín first read James Baldwin just after turning eighteen. He had completed his first year at an Irish university and was struggling to free himself from a religious upbringing. Inspired by the novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, Tóibín found a writer who would be a lifelong companion and exemplar. From On James Baldwin: Baldwin was interested in the hidden and dramatic areas in his own being, and was prepared as a writer to explore difficult truths about his own private life. In his fiction, he had to battle for the right of his protagonists to choose or influence their destinies. He knew about guilt and rage and bitter privacies in a way that few of his White novelist contemporaries did. And this was not simply because he was Black and homosexual; the difference arose from the very nature of his talent, from the texture of his sensibility. 'All art,' he wrote, 'is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. All artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, to tell the whole story, to vomit the anguish up.' On James Baldwin is a magnificent contemporary author's tribute to one of his most consequential literary progenitors."

Colm Toibin (Author), Gary Furlong (Narrator)

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[German] - Der Zauberer: zum 150. Geburtstag von Thomas Mann

"Aus dem Englischen von Giovanni Bandini. Colm Toibin erzählt mit einmaliger Empathie das Leben von Thomas Mann als Roman. Von der Kindheit in Lübeck bis zur Heirat in München, von der Gegnerschaft gegen die Nazis bis zum amerikanischen Exil. Wie viele Gesichter hatte der weltberühmte Autor und Familienvater, der sein Gefühlsleben verborgen hielt, zerrissen zwischen homosexuellem Begehren und familiärem Pflichtgefühl, zwischen der Wonne der Bürgerlichkeit und der künstlerischen Askese? (Perlentaucher.de) Thomas Schendel - deutscher Schauspieler, Regisseur und Sprecher, bekannt aus mehreren hundert Theater-, Film- und Fernsehproduktionen, kürzlich ausgezeichnet auf dem Ignite-Filmfestival, England, mit dem Award 'Best Actor' 2023 - liest, interpretiert, übersetzt Zola's Rougon-Macquart Zyklus in wertschätzender Weise und eröffnet uns einen gleichermaßen modernen und doch authentischen Blick auf die französische Gesellschaft des 19. Jahrhunderts wie Emile Zola sie sah. Hier erweckt er in empathischer Weise einen Thomas Mann zum Leben, wie wir ihn noch nicht kannten."

Colm Toibin (Author), Thomas Schendel (Narrator)

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On the Couch: Writers Analyze Sigmund Freud

"The controversial father of psychiatry and psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud charted the human unconscious, brought us the talking cure, and wrote books that now rank among the classics of world literature. In On the Couch, the great analyst is analyzed by some of today's great writers and thinkers, who help us understand the man who has helped us understand ourselves as much, if not more, than anyone else, ever. The result is a fresh, multifaceted reassessment of Freud's continuing relevance and influence on ideas, literature, culture, science, and more. Colm Tóibín writes about Freud, World War I, Henry James, and Thomas Mann; Adam Gopnik explores Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents; Susie Orbach considers Freud's 'ordinary unhappiness' and D. W. Winnicott's 'good enough'; Jennifer Finney Boylan reflects on penis envy and gender identity; Peter Kramer describes how new science and drugs have revolutionized psychology since Freud; Susie Boyt, one of Freud's great-granddaughters, spends the night at the Freud Museum in London; Siri Hustvedt examines Freud's divided reception today; and there's much more. Filled with insights, provocation, and humor, On the Couch offers an original and nuanced portrait of Freud as a complex figure who, for all his flaws, forever changed how we see ourselves and the world."

Alex Pheby, Andre Aciman, Colm Toibin, Jennifer Finney Boylan, Siri Hustvedt (Author), Dina Pearlman, Perry Daniels (Narrator)

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Thalia Book Club: Nora Webster

Colm Toibin (Author), Siri Hustvedt, Terry Donnelly (Narrator)

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Thalia Book Club: Nora Webster

Colm Toibin (Author), Siri Hustvedt, Terry Donnelly (Narrator)

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Thalia Book Club: Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin and Colm Toibin's Brooklyn

Colm Toibin, Colum McCann (Author), Isaiah Sheffer, Michael Cerveris (Narrator)

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