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Content snapshot
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Violence
None
No violence
Language
Barely any
Mild language
Sexual Content
None
No sexual content
Substance Use
Barely any
Social drinking in an Irish setting
Emotional Intensity
Some
Grief as a social performance versus grief as a private reality; the slow work of constructing an independent self after a lifetime of being defined by another person
What this book is about
Nora Webster is a widow in a small Irish town in the late 1960s. Her husband Maurice has died, leaving her with four children, a house, and a social identity built entirely around being someone's wife. Nora is not sure who she is without him — or rather, she is slowly discovering that the person she is without him has been there all along, waiting. Colm Tóibín's novel is precise, restrained, and emotionally devastating in the way only very quiet books can be: a portrait of a woman reclaiming herself inch by inch in a community that would prefer she stay contained by grief.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
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