Colm Toibin
I started reading this book because of its title, The Empty Family, a topic in which an interest has been nourished and developed in me since my PhD days. And the title, as the combination of the words denotes, promises a heart-rending reading as I always like it, and so did it not fail my expectation. The short stories all develop around the theme of family, homecoming, home-leaving, home-abandoning, home-binding, home-seeking, etc., exploring every possible dimension of one's ambiguous feeling of attachment and detachment to the idea of and the place called 'home'.
I remember I was on the verge of tears several times on the train when I was reading it through.
It is the first time for me to read about same-sex love, too. I was ignorant about the fact that it is one of the featured themes in Toibin's stories, but the innocence has me overwhelmed by the powerful emotion and unbearable afflictions contained in the author's masterful narratives.
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