Nora Webster

Colm Tóibín’s literary, historical novel Nora Webster (2014) concerns a young woman struggling to raise her four young children after her husband passes away. Winner of the 2015 Hawthornden Prize, the book received numerous other prestigious award nominations. Tóibín is a bestselling novelist and scriptwriter. He served on the Irish Arts Council and lectured at Princeton University. He has honorary doctorates from both the University College Dublin and the University of Dublin. He edited the Penguin Book of Irish Fiction.

When the novel opens, Nora Webster is living in 1960s rural Ireland with her four children. Unemployed, she hasn’t worked for a long time. Although she is only forty, she is already a widow. Struggling to provide for her family, she misses her late husband, Maurice, terribly. Nora wishes Maurice could come back to make everything okay again.

There is a big age gap between Nora’s children. Her eldest, Fiona, is a trainee teacher. Her youngest is Conor. In the middle, Aine, is a university student, and Donal, a thirteen-year-old high school student. Fiona helps Nora with her younger siblings but she is too busy to look after them all the time.



Although Nora loves her children, she’s consumed by her grief and doesn’t give them the attention they need. The children all miss their father, but they miss Nora just as much because she shuts them out. Everyone in the family craves some normality and emotional stability, but unfortunately, things are about to get worse for the Websters.

Nora quickly runs out of money. Unless she gets a job right away, the only way she can keep the family home is to sell their holiday cottage by the beach. When Nora tells the children what must happen, they lash out angrily at her. They all have fond memories of growing up there and spending time by the sea with Maurice. The children feel that if they lose the beach house, they’ll lose their memories.

Nora does everything she can to avoid dealing with the beach house and cutting this final tie to Maurice. She throws her energy into looking for work and making sure there is food on the table. She finds administration work at a local mill company, but she barely makes enough money to cover her bills. To make matters worse, Nora doesn’t get on with the manager, Kavanagh.



Having never struggled for money, Kavanagh doesn’t understand Nora’s problems. Nora thinks Kavanagh is spoiled and privileged. In the meantime, Fiona needs money to finish her teacher training, and Aine doesn’t know how she’ll graduate university without money to pay tuition fees. Nora knows that, however much she despises Kavanagh, she needs this job to keep her family afloat.

Meanwhile, Nora can’t stop thinking about Maurice and how much she needs him. Unable to imagine her life improving, she feels her best days are behind her. Seeing how much she’s struggling, Maurice’s family offers her money. They pay for Fiona’s training and they help Aine with her fees. Nora thinks she is a bad mother because she can’t look after her own children.

Nora’s children deal with their own grief in different ways. Conor, the youngest, is anxious and worries about everything. Feeling helpless, he wishes Maurice were still around. Donal doesn’t want to stay in the family home anymore. He heads to boarding school and throws himself into his studies.



Aine moves to Dublin to become a political activist. Involved in violent riots, Aine is a constant source of worry for Nora. Fiona moves to Wexford to start her teaching career. Feeling lost without her daughters Nora wonders if she is responsible for letting her family fall apart. She realizes that she didn’t give them the support they needed after Maurice’s death, but she doesn’t know what to do about it now.

One night, Nora dreams of Maurice. He tells her to pull herself together and to look after her children better. He is especially worried about Conor because he is so young. When Nora wakes up, she is convinced she spoke to Maurice’s ghost during the night. She decides it is time to get her life in order.

Nora’s first job is to remodel the family home. She doesn’t think about Maurice all the time and the house triggers so many memories. Despite Nora’s best efforts, no amount of decorating makes her pain go away. Nora’s Aunt Josie, sensing her despair, moves in with her for a while. She tells Nora that she doesn’t need to face her grief alone and that she should stop shutting people out.



Nora recognizes that Aunt Josie is right. She worries so much about money and stability that she doesn’t talk about her feelings or deal with her grief. She pushes the people who care about her away, including her own family. She packs up Maurice’s belongings and stores them away. It is time to say goodbye to him and begin her life again.