An Irish voice echoes across cultures

Toibin's skillful portrayal of Eilis' experience as an exile straddling two cultures. Her painful return to Ireland after a long absence has strong resonance with Chinese readers, many of whom experienced migration from their hometowns before starting completely different lives in a rapidly developing urban China.

"Having experienced the challenges of living in Beijing and Shanghai, I fully understand the struggles of living in New York as an immigrant," Niao Niao says. Growing up in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Niao Niao recalls its cold climate and local fondness in alcohol, and says she found strong resonance in Toibin's description of living conditions in hometown.

During a brief interview with China Daily in Shanghai, Toibin talked about his impression of Chinese readers: "There is a growing number of serious readers of fiction in China who will read books from any country as well as China. They are educated, curious.

"There is a sense that novels and books could inspire you or could be something that you would talk about if you were meeting with a friend, as much as people talk about movies," he added.

"I was meeting with a new generation of publishers, translators, editors, literary journalists, people who really live and eat books as their food, like books were necessary for their daily lives," Toibin said, recalling his experiences with his Chinese publisher Peng and Chinese readers over the years. "There are a great number of people whom I met 15 years ago. They were then 25 and are now 40. It was a great thing to see. A lot of people now are editors online, or doing various things still in the book business," he said.

Peng, his Chinese publisher, remembers Toibin's previous visits to China in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015. He helps plan Toibin's itinerary every time, leading to meetings with Chinese writers such as Wang Anyi and Su Tong.

As the Irish author became familiar with Chinese art and culture, he also fell in love with the ink paintings of Wu Guanzhong, and even wrote reviews for Shi Zhiying, a Shanghai-based contemporary artist.

David Murphy, consul general of Ireland in Shanghai, tells China Daily about Toibin's influence on contemporary Irish literature.

While Toibin has brilliantly told the stories of Irish family life, the experience of immigrants and the daily lives of people in Ireland, he also "champions the works of other Irish writers, helping to shape the conversation in Ireland and globally about what stories are important, the way we tell our stories, and who we tell them to".

Peng says that Toibin has recommended a number of writers to him, both Irish and from other countries. "He knows lots of writers, reads extensively, and writes literary reviews too."