The Sign of the Cross
Travels in Catholic Europe
Published on 15. June 2023
256 pages
978-1-0350-3438-3 (ISBN)
Description
Between 1990 and 1994, Colm Toibin made a series of trips through Catholic Europe. His journey led him into close contact with people from all walks of life, from priests to politicians, from the intellectually open to the spiritually bigoted. He then set down his impressions in The Sign of the Cross, a beautifully written book filled with personal detail set within its historical context.
Reviews / Votes
Colm Toibin writes beautifully in a spare style that allows for plain description, high humour and effects that are carefully toned. He is at once an honest, uncertain pilgrim with a press card and a sense of devilment, and a son on an Oedipal trail. * Irish Times * A mixture of autobiography, travelogue and journalism which tantalizes the reader with what it withholds as much as it entertains and instructs with what it describes . . . The Sign of the Cross, like all good writing, is a treat. * Independent on Sunday * This book describing Colm Toibin's journey is written with the novelist's familiar clarity and wisdom. It is as much a record of the European Catholic psyche in different political climates as it is an introspective pilgrimage to see what stuff Toibin's own faith is made of. * Daily Telegraph *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pan Macmillan
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Interest Age: From 18 years
File size
1,12 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-0350-3438-3 (9781035034383)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
03/2025
Picador
€14.00
Available immediately
Book
05/2010
Picador
€14.50
Article exhausted; check different version
Person
Colm Toibin was born in Enniscorthy in 1955. He is the author of eleven novels including The Master, Brooklyn, The Testament of Mary, and The Magician. His work has been shortlisted for the Booker three times, won the Costa Novel Award, the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Impac Award. He has also published two collections of stories and many works of non-fiction.
