The Empty Family
Encyclopedia
The Empty Family is a collection of short stories by Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 author Colm Tóibín
Colm Tóibín
Colm Tóibín is a multi-award-winning Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, and, most recently, poet.Tóibín is Leonard Milberg Lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton University in New Jersey and succeeded Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the...

. It was published in the UK in October 2010 and was released in the US in January 2011.

The Empty Family was shortlisted for the 2011 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award
Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award
The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award is a literary award for short story collections. At 35,000 euro for the best book of short stories it claims to be the world's largest prize for a short story collection. Each year, roughly sixty books are longlisted, with either four or six books...

.

Reviews

Reviews have been generally positive. Bryan Lynch in the Irish Independent
Irish Independent
The Irish Independent is Ireland's largest-selling daily newspaper that is published in both compact and broadsheet formats. It is the flagship publication of Independent News & Media.-History:...

 wrote that the "stories are always intensely interesting and sometimes profoundly provocative", noting that the sexually frank depictions required great courage. Keith Miller in the Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

 descrived the book as an "exquisite and almost excruciating collection" Irish Times journalist Heather Ingman noted that most of Tóibín's familiar themes are present but with the addition of a "hard-won wisdom", giving rich rewards to the reader. Most reviewers commented on the fact that Tóibín's prose has become ever more spare and refined, with Ingman inviting readers " to read slowly and savour the silences between the words".
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