From one of the most engaging and brilliant writers of our time comes a collection of essays about growing up in Ireland during radical change; about cancer, priests, popes, homosexuality, and literature. IT ALL STARTED WITH MY BALLS. So begins Colm Toibin’s fabulously compelling essay, laced with humor, about his diagnosis and treatment for cancer. Toibin survives, but he has entered, as he says, the age of one ball. The second essay in this seductive collection is a memoir about growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s in the small town of Enniscorthy in County Wexford, the setting for many of Toibin’s novels and stories, including Brooklyn, The Blackwater Lightship and Nora Webster. Toibin describes his education by priests, several of whom were condemned years later for abuse. He writes about Irish history and literature, and about the long, tragic journey toward legal and social acceptance of homosexuality.

In Part Two, Toibin profiles three complex and vexing popes–John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis. And in Part Three, he writes about a trio of authors who reckon with religion in their fiction. The final essay, Alone in Venice, is a gorgeous account of Toibin’s journey, at the height of the pandemic, to the beloved city where he has set some of his most dazzling scenes. The streets, canals, churches and museums were empty. He had them to himself, an experience both haunting and exhilarating.

A Guest at the Feast is both an intimate encounter with a supremely creative artist and a glorious celebration of writing.

Table of Contents

PART ONE
Cancer: My Part in Its Downfall
A Guest at the Feast
A Brush with the Law

PART TWO
The Paradoxical Pope
Among the Flutterers
The Bergoglio Smile: Pope Francis
The Ferns Report

PART THREE
Putting Religion in Its Place: Marilynne Robinson
Issues of Truth and Invention: Francis Stuart
Snail Slow: John McGahern

EPILOGUE
Alone in Venice