Colm Tóibín, one of Ireland's leading journalists and best young writers, is the author of two critically acclaimed books published this past year, The Blackwater Lightship, a novel, and the Penguin Book of Irish Fiction (ISBN 0-6700-89108-8), a 1000-page anthology. He has written a regular column for the Dublin Sunday Independent and has also published several travelogues including The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe (1994) and Homage to Barcelona (1990).