The Blackwater Lightship - Summary

[ Taken from the inside book cover ]

It is Ireland in the early 1990s. Three women, Dora Devereux, her daughter Lily and her grand-daughter Helen have arrived, after years of strife, at an uneasy peace with each other.They know that in the years ahead it will be necessary for them to keep their distance. Now, however, Declan, Helen's adored brother is dying and the three of them come together in the grandmother's crumbling old house with two of Declan's friends. All six of them, from different generations and with different beliefs, are forced to listen to each other and come to terms with each other.

The Blackwater Lightship is a novel about morals and manners, about culture clashes and clashes of personalities, but it is also a novel full of stories, as the characters give an account of themselves, and the others listen, awe-struck or deeply amused at things they have never heard before. Written in a spare, powerful prose, The Blackwater Lightship is an astonishingly acute and moving work which offers sharp and memorable insights into the nature of love and family, and dramatises the lives of characters who appear remarkably exact and real. It is Colm Toibin's finest achievement.