'The Master is a portrait of Henry James that has the depth and finish of great sculpture...Long before its end [Toibin] has achieved a triumph on his own terms' Observer
'A taut, well-crafted, mesmerising novel...[Toibin's] limpid, measured prose illuminates this fictional James superbly. The Master is a masterly achievement' Independent
In The Master, Cohn Toibin captures the exquisite anguish of a man who circulated in the grand parlours and palazzos of Europe, who was astonishingly vibrant and alive in his art, and yet whose attempts at intimacy inevitably failed him and those he tried to love. It is a powerful account of the hazards of putting the life of the mind before affairs of the heart.
