Colm Tóibín

Thu., Jan. 27, 7:30 p.m., free, Free Library, Central Branch, 1901 Vine St., 215-567-4341, freelibrary.org.

by A.D. Amorosi

[ reading/signing ]

There's a hush to Colm Tóibín's work that is most noticeable in his devilish details — the subtle sound of people barely speaking, the lights and shadows behind them, the quiet manner in which their longings go unrequited. The Irishman has parsed the waters of relationships and soft ruin in The Master, Brooklyn and The South. But in the stories that fill his newest work, The Empty Family (Scribner, Jan. 4), Tóibín heads back to the motherland. He's been compared to William Trevor and (more grandly) Henry James, but there's something epic, poetic and sad even in his most heartening tales, all reminiscent of T.S. Elliot. Whether happy or tortured, Tóibín moves in mysterious ways.

Thu., Jan. 27, 7:30 p.m., free, Free Library, Central Branch, 1901 Vine St., 215-567-4341, freelibrary.org.