With dazzling brilliance and empathy, Colm Tóibín's collection of stories wrestles with complicated themes of emotional restraint, the long reach of sexual repression, and the difficulty of escaping one's past. Each of the nine stories in this beautifully written, intensely intimate collection centers on a transformative moment that alters the delicate balance of power between mother and son, or changes the way they perceive one another. With exquisite grace and eloquence, Tóibín writes of men and women bound by convention, by unspoken emotions, by the stronghold of the past. Many are trapped in lives they would not choose again, if they ever chose at all. A man buries his mother and converts his grief to desire in one night. A famous singer captivates an audience, yet cannot beguile her own estranged son. And in "A Long Winter," Colm Tóibín's finest piece to date, a young man searches for his mother in the snow-covered mountains where she has sought escape from the husband who controls and confines her. Winner of numerous awards for his fifth novel, The Master—including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award—Tóibín brings to this stunning first collection an acute understanding of human frailty and longing. These are haunting, profoundly moving stories by a writer who is himself a master.

Mothers and Sons: In Their Own Words captures the compelling connections between mothers and sons and translates those subtle emotions into deceptively simple photographs. In the accompanying texts, mothers and sons reveal their most trying and their most exalted moments with candor and humor, recounting both extraordinary actions and everyday existence with enthusiasm, from a parent's lyrical essay to a two year old's uncomplicated observations. With an introduction by Isabel Allende, Mothers and Sons is a powerful tribute in both words and images to the unique yet universal relationship between mothers and sons.

First published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Foundational wisdom on how mothers can build emotional, spiritual, and sexual stability in their sons.

At turns funny and powerful, MOTHERS AND SONS portrays a woman who pays an unexpected visit to the New York apartment of her late son's partner, who is now married to another man and has a young son. Challenged to face how society has changed around her, generations collide as she revisits the past and begins to see the life her son might have led.

Through exercises and guided meditations, the author provides the means to uncover the influence of the primal bond between a man and his mother and to facilitate healing there—as well as in marriage, parenthood, friendship, and all other relationships of love.