Brooklyn

Author: Toibin, Colm

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 1 February 2010 by Penguin Books Ltd in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 272 pages
197 x 128 x 17 | 194g

A devastating story of love, loss and one womans terrible choice between duty and personal freedom. Fall in love with Brooklyn ahead of its bestselling follow-up, Long Island.

It is Ireland in the early 1950s and for Eilis Lacey, as for so many young Irish girls, opportunities are scarce. So when her sister arranges for her to emigrate to New York, Eilis knows she must go, leaving behind her family and her home for the first time.

Arriving in a crowded lodging house in Brooklyn, Eilis can only be reminded of what she has sacrificed. She is far from home - and homesick. And just as she takes tentative steps towards friendship, and perhaps something more, Eilis receives news which sends her back to Ireland.

There she will be confronted by a terrible dilemma - a devastating choice between duty and one great love.

***With this elating and humane novel, Colm Tóibín has produced a masterwork Sunday TimesUnforgettable SpectatorThe most compelling and moving portrait of a young woman I have read in a long time Zoë Heller, GuardianMagnificent Sunday TelegraphThe book that inspired the major motion picture starring Saoirse Ronan.