Ep 8: Magic & The Magician with Colm Tóibín interviewed by David Butler

Colm Tóibín talks about the life of Thomas Mann with David Butler.

Colm Tóibín ag plé shaol Thomas Mann in éineacht le David Butler

Colm Tóibín’s latest novel, The Magician, tells the story of a century through one life. Its central character Thomas Mann lives a life 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. The Guardian review said, “This is an enormously ambitious book, one in which the intimate and the momentous are exquisitely balanced. It is the story of a man who spent almost all of his adult life behind a desk or going for sedate little post-prandial walks with his wife. From this sedentary existence, Tóibín has fashioned an epic.”

 

One of Ireland’s greatest writers, Colm Tóibín began his career as a journalist before publishing his first books in 1990. Since his first novel, The South (shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and winner of the Irish Times/ Aer Lingus First Fiction Award) he has published novels, collections of journalism, and short stories and been nominated for and awarded scores of literary awards.

Tóibín is currently  Chancellor of Liverpool University, Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University in Manhattan. He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of books and a contributing editor at the London Review of Books.

David Butler is a multi-award-winning novelist, poet, short-story writer, and playwright. The most recent of his three published novels, City of Dis (New Island) was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, 2015. His poetry collections All the Barbaric Glass (2017) and Liffey Sequence (2021) are published by, and available from, Doire Press. His 11 poem cycle ‘Blackrock Sequence’, a percent Literary Arts Commission illustrated by his brother Jim, won the World Illustrators Award 2018 (books, professional section). Arlen House is to bring out his second short story collection, Fugitive, in 2021. Literary prizes include the Maria Edgeworth (twice), ITT/Red Line and Fish International Award for the short story; the Scottish Community Drama, Cork Arts Theatre and British Theatre Challenge awards; and the Féile Filíochta, Ted McNulty, Brendan Kennelly, and Poetry Ireland/Trocaire awards for poetry. His radio play ‘Vigil’ was shortlisted for a ZeBBie 2018. David tutors regularly at the Irish Writers Centre.

Music by https://www.free-stock-music.com

Event audio: Max Gay

Produced & presented by: Deanna O'Connor

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