South, the

Blurb

The South is a 1990 novel by Irish writer Colm Tóibín. It drew comparisons with Milan Kundera.
Katherine, a Protestant woman from Ireland, arrives in Barcelona in the 1950s having left her husband and son. Very slowly she starts discovering the city and gets to meet local painters. The dictatorship of Francisco Franco and the still recent civil war are present in the characters' past. She meets the artist Miguel and they both move to a remote village in the Pyrenees.
The novel was first published by Serpent's Tail in 1990 and a revised edition was published by Picador Press. ISBN 0-330-33985-0