When you are finished why not read the companion novel Nora Webster. ‘Magnificent’ Sunday Telegraph ‘A work of such skill, understatement and sly jewelled merriment could haunt your life’ Ali Smith TLS, Books of the Year ‘The most compelling and moving portrait of a young woman I have read in a long time’ Zoë Heller Guardian, Books of the Year ‘With this elating and humane novel, Colm Tóibìn has produced a masterwork’ Sunday Times There she will be confronted by a terrible dilemma – a devastating choice between duty and one great love. And just as she takes tentative steps towards friendship, and perhaps something more, Eilis receives news which sends her back to Ireland. 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.Īrriving in a crowded lodging house in Brooklyn, Eilis can only be reminded of what she has sacrificed. It is Ireland in the early 1950s and for Eilis Lacey, as for so many young Irish girls, opportunities are scarce. A Year in Books – Reading SubscriptionsĬolm Toibin’s Brooklyn is a devastating story of love, loss and one woman’s terrible choice between duty and personal freedom.The novel takes place sometime in the 1950s. It then follows its protagonist Eilis across the Atlantic to Brooklyn. Women’s Prize Shortlist – Discounted Bundle by Colm Toibin Buy Study Guide Brooklyn Literary Elements Genre bildungsroman, historical fiction, romance Setting and Context The novel opens in Enniscorthy, a small town in County Wexford, Ireland.Reading Together – Books for Book Clubs.But just as Eilis begins to fall in love with Tony, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future.īy far Tóibín's most instantly engaging and emotionally resonant novel, Brooklyn will make readers fall in love with his gorgeous writing and spellbinding characters. He talks of having children who are Dodgers fans.

He takes Eilis to Coney Island and Ebbets Field, and home to dinner in the two-room apartment he shares with his brothers and parents. Tony, a blond Italian from a big family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn to sponsor Eilis in America - to live and work in a Brooklyn neighborhood 'just like Ireland' - she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind.Įilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Though skilled at bookkeeping, she cannot find a job in the miserable Irish economy. Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the years following World War Two.

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