by Colm Toibin
‘Well, this is lovely, Helen, it’s lovely, it’s very bright,’ her mother said. Her voice was quiet and sad.
Helen made tea while her mother sat at the table. When she realised that she had no milk, she offered to go to the shop, but Lily said she would drink it black.
‘Declan told me about this house, so I knew what it was like,’ her mother said, ‘but it’s nice to be here.’
‘I should go upstairs and make up a bed for you,’ Helen said.
‘Don’t go yet,’ her mother said. ‘Stay here. You don’t have to talk. Sometimes when I’m with my mother, I wish I didn’t have to talk.’
‘Granny is a great talker,’ Helen said.
‘Your granny wears me out,’ her mother said, ‘and now that you and I are talking again I don’t want to do that to you.’
‘I’ll stay up for another few minutes.’
‘I come up to Dublin on Saturdays sometimes,’ her mother said. ‘I’d love to come out here to your house for my tea. I mean I wouldn’t stay the night. I hate staying the night in my mother’s. And it’s your house, and you don’t want your mother nosing around too much.’
She sipped her tea and sighed and looked out at the garden. She stared into the distance as she spoke. ‘I could see the boys. And then I’d drive home. It’ll be all quicker with the new bypass. And that’s what’s keeping me going, Helen, that’s what I dream about now, that you and I could sit here talking about nothing, and watch the boys playing and Hugh coming in and out of the room. And I could stand up and go, and it would be all easy and casual. That’s what I dream about now.’
‘That’s a lovely thought,’ Helen said. ‘And I promise I’ll have milk when you come.’
‘Let’s go to bed now,’ her mother said. ‘I’ve said what I wanted to say.’
She stood up and brought her cup and saucer to the sink.
‘We’d better be in good form when Hugh comes,’ she said. ‘And we’ll go and see Declan later, but we’ll sleep for a while first, we’ll sleep for a while.’
About the Author
© Phoebe Ling
Colm Tóibín is the author of seven novels, including The Blackwater Lightship;The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; and The Testament of Mary, as well as two story collections. Twice shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Tóibín lives in Dublin and New York.
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ALSO BY COLM TÓIBÍN
FICTION
The South
The Heather Blazing
The Story of the Night
NONFICTION
Bad Blood:
A Walk Along the Irish Border
Homage to Barcelona
The Sign of the Cross:
Travels in Catholic Europe
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1999 by Colm Tóibín
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
First Scribner trade paperback edition 2004
Previously published in Great Britain in 1999 by Picador
SCRIBNER and design are trademarks of
Macmillan Library Reference USA, Inc., used under license by Simon & Schuster, the publisher of this work.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Scribner edition as follows: Tóibín, Colm, 1955–
The blackwater lightship : a novel / Colm Tóibín.
p. cm.
1. Family—Ireland—Fiction. 2. Ireland—Fiction. 3. Death—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6070.O455 B57 2000
823'.914—dc21 00-021036
ISBN 0-684-87389-3
0-7432-0331-3 (Pbk)
ISBN-13: 978-1-501-10692-7 (ebook)
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
