The Blackwater Lightship

The Blackwater Lightship
	First edition cover
Author	Colm Tóibín
Cover artist	Mary Lohan
Language	English
Publisher	Picador
Publication date	1999
Publication place	Ireland
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	273 pp (first edition hardcover)
ISBN	0-684-87389-3
OCLC	43333551
Dewey Decimal	823/.914 21
LC Class	PR6070.O455 B57 2000

The Blackwater Lightship is a 1999 novel written by Irish novelist Colm Tóibín, and was short-listed for the Booker Prize.

Plot summary

The story is set in Dublin and County Wexford^[1] and described from the viewpoint of Helen, a successful school principal living with her husband and two children in Ireland. She learns one day, that her brother Declan, who is homosexual, has been ill with AIDS for years, and refused to tell her until then. He asks her to deliver their mother and grandmother the news. This presents a challenge to Helen as she has had minimal contact with the two women due to deeply buried conflicts relating to Helen's past and her father's sudden death when she was a child.

As the three women meet again they are forced to overcome these struggles for Declan's sake. The novel follows the painful journey they must take in order to correct the misunderstanding that exists between them.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The novel was made into a film and aired on CBS as a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation. Angela Lansbury received an Emmy nomination for it in 2004. It also stars Gina McKee, Sam Robards, Dianne Wiest, and Keith McErlean; and was directed by John Erman.

References

^ A Little Nearer Redemption: A novel in which innocence and the therapeutic power of talking have not lost their power., The New York Times, Set 10, 2000.

External links

CBS site for the film

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[1] A Little Nearer Redemption: A novel in which innocence and the therapeutic power of talking have not lost their power., The New York Times, Set 10, 2000.

[1]

v t e Works by Colm Tóibín
Novels	The South (1990) The Heather Blazing (1992) The Story of the Night (1996) The Blackwater Lightship (1999) The Master (2004) Brooklyn (2009) The Testament of Mary (2012) Nora Webster (2014) House of Names (2017) The Magician (2021) Long Island (2024)
Essay collections	Love in a Dark Time (2002) New Ways to Kill Your Mother (2012)
Short story collections	Mothers and Sons (2006) The Empty Family (2010)
Plays	Beauty in a Broken Place (2004)
Poetry	Cush Gap, 2007 (2011)
Screenplay	Return to Montauk (2017)
Non-fiction	Bad Blood (1987) Homage to Barcelona (1990) The Sign of the Cross (1994) Lady Gregory's Toothbrush (2002) The Use of Reason (2006)