Product Details
Scribner, May 2009
Hardcover, 272 pages
ISBN-10: 1439138311
ISBN-13: 9781439138311
Read an Excerpt
Chapter 1Description
Hauntingly beautiful and heartbreaking, Colm Tóibín's sixth novel, Brooklyn, is set in Brooklyn and Ireland in the early 1950s, when one young woman crosses the ocean to make a new life for herself.
Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the years following World War Two. Though skilled at bookkeeping, she cannot find a job in the miserable Irish economy. 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.
Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, a blond Italian from a big family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. 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. He talks of having children who are Dodgers fans. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love with Tony, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future.
By far Tóibín's most instantly engaging and emotionally resonant novel, Brooklyn will make readers fall in love with his gorgeous writing and spellbinding characters.
"A classical coming-of-age story, pure, unsensationalized, quietly profound."
-- Pam Houston, O, the Oprah Magazine
"A beautifully rendered portrait of Brooklyn and provincial Ireland in the 1950s... Toibin writes about women more convincingly, I think, than any other living, male novelist."
-- Zoe Heller, author of The Believers
"[A] masterly tale... There is not a sentence or a thought out of place."
-- Irish Times
"Colm Toibin leads a generation of Irish novelists... His generation's most gifted writer of love's complicated, contradictory power."
-- Los Angeles Times
"Toibin's prose is as elegant in its simplicity as it is complex in the emotions it evokes."
-- The New York Times Magazine
"Reading Tóibín is like watching an artist paint one small stroke after another until suddenly the finished picture emerges to shattering effect."
-- The Times Literary Supplement (U.K.)
"A quiet masterpiece."
-- The Express (U.K.)
"A quiet masterpiece."
-- The Express (U.K.)
Belfast Telegraph, October 22, 2009
...Hand-in-hand with Colm Toibin’s status as a literary heavyweight, it was an unassuming and extremely witty individual who entertained a packed auditorium at the Baby Grand last night. Toibin explained the genesis ...
Irish Independent, October 7, 2009
...in July failed to get on the shortlist of six announced two months ago. The longlist had included Colm Toibin for his summer bestseller 'Brooklyn', William Trevor for his novel 'Love and Summer' and former foreign correspondent Ed O'Loughlin ...
New Zealand Herald, September 19, 2009
...Stranger) is its neglect of a new novel of real distinction. There's one quite extraordinary omission here. Colm Toibin's Brooklyn is, for my money, the closest Booker has come in years to a small masterpiece. Deceptively spare, with a ...
Wicked Local Rockport, September 4, 2009
...open for youngsters to check out books after the program. For more information, call 978-546-6934. Sunday Book Chat ?Brooklyn? by Colm Toibin will be the topic of the next Sunday Book Chat, on Sept. 13 at 2 p.m. in the Trustees Room. The ...
Irish Independent, August 15, 2009
...This month's book club members read Colm Toibin's 'Brooklyn', but all agree that the prize-winning author fails to live up to his potential Share Articles Topics Also in Books Welcome to the Irish Independent Book Club ...
The Age, July 29, 2009
...for Disgrace in 1999 and Life & Times of Michael K in 1983. Others longlisted are Irish writer Colm Toibin, who has been twice shortlisted for the prize in 1999 and 2004 only to miss out, for his book Brooklyn about belonging. First timers ...
PinkPaper.com, July 29, 2009
...Gay writers Colm Toibin and Sarah Waters have made it on to the shortlist for the 2009 Man Booker Prize, it has been announced. Jamie Tabberer news. PinkPaper.com 29 July 2009 Gay ...
Buffalo News, July 29, 2009
...Mantel, Wolf Hall; Simon Mawer, The Glass Room; Ed OLoughlin, Not Untrue & Not Unkind; James Scudamore, Heliopolis; Colm Toibin, Brooklyn; William Trevor, Love and Summer; and Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger. James Naughtie, chairman of ...
Buffalo News, July 29, 2009
...Mantel, Wolf Hall; Simon Mawer, The Glass Room; Ed OLoughlin, Not Untrue & Not Unkind; James Scudamore, Heliopolis; Colm Toibin, Brooklyn; William Trevor, Love and Summer; and Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger. James Naughtie, chairman of ...
First Post, July 29, 2009
...Ed O'Loughlin for Not Untrue & Not Unkind (Penguin - Ireland); James Scudamore for Heliopolis (Harvill Secker); Colm Toibin for Brooklyn (Viking); William Trevor for Love and Summer (Viking) and Sarah Waters for The Little Stranger (Virago). ...
Brisbane Times, July 29, 2009
...for Disgrace in 1999 and Life & Times of Michael K in 1983. Others longlisted are Irish writer Colm Toibin, who has been twice shortlisted for the prize in 1999 and 2004 only to miss out, for his book Brooklyn about belonging. First timers ...
The Hindu, July 29, 2009
...Mawer for 'The Glass Room', Ed O'Loughlin - 'Not Untrue & Not Unkind', James Scudamore - Heliopolis; Colm Toibin - 'Brooklyn', William Trevor - 'Love and Summer' and Sarah Waters for 'The Little Stranger' have also made it to the long list ...
Nine MSN, July 28, 2009
...for Disgrace in 1999 and Life & Times of Michael K in 1983. Others longlisted are Irish writer Colm Toibin, who has been twice shortlisted for the prize in 1999 and 2004 only to miss out, for his book Brooklyn about belonging. First timers ...
AFP via Yahoo!, July 28, 2009
...for 'Disgrace' in 1999 and 'Life & Times of Michael K' in 1983. Others longlisted are Irish writer Colm Toibin, who has been twice shortlisted for the prize in 1999 and 2004 only to miss out, for his book 'Brooklyn' about belonging. First ...
Enniscorthy Guardian, July 3, 2009
...COLM TOIBIN READING IN ENNISCORTHY LIBRARY Share Jarlath Glynn, Colm Toibín, David Medcalf and Peg Doyle in Enniscorthy Library last Friday night. Also in News HIS FANS queued to greet the ...
USA Today, June 30, 2009
...Colm Toibin's Brooklyn, about a young Irish woman coming to New York in 1952, is one of those magically quiet novels that sneak up on readers and capture their imaginations ...
Denver Post, June 29, 2009
...before Bernard Malamud made it mythological, decades before Paul Auster's magical labyrinth sprang upon its leafy blocks, Brooklyn was home to thousands upon thousands of Irish immigrants. Seventy thousand, to be exact, many of whom came to ...
Denver Post, June 26, 2009
...before Bernard Malamud made it mythological, decades before Paul Auster's magical labyrinth sprang upon its leafy blocks, Brooklyn was home to thousands upon thousands of Irish immigrants. Seventy thousand, to be exact, many of whom came to ...
Denver Post, June 25, 2009
...before Bernard Malamud made it mythological, decades before Paul Auster's magical labyrinth sprang upon its leafy blocks, Brooklyn was home to thousands upon thousands of Irish immigrants. Seventy thousand, to be exact, many of whom came to ...
CBC, June 15, 2009
...Author Colm Toibin talks about his immigrant novel, Brooklyn Irish novelist Colm Toibin, whose new book is called Brooklyn. (Reuters) With its period setting, decidedly linear plot and bare-bones sentences, you could ...
Irish Independent, June 12, 2009
...three children. He was once a promising Harvard student but is now broke and working in construction in Brooklyn. When we meet him, he has had to leave his wife and children with his disapproving mother-in-law and has just four days to raise ...
First Post, May 12, 2009
...The novel 'stands out as remarkable even among Ireland's distinguished roll of fiction about home and exile'. 'Brooklyn is a tremendously moving and powerful work,' said Benjamin Markovits in the New Statesman. TóibÃn 'rarely plays a ...
Cleveland Live, May 10, 2009
...Colm Toibin's 'Brooklyn' is a quiet story about enor mous upheavals, and the novel's restraint is its mastery. Toibin takes us through beautifully rendered scenes, puts us through well-paced ...
WXEL, May 8, 2009
...Book critic Maureen Corrigan says the most remarkable aspect of Colm Toibin's new novel is its heroine, a 'plain Jane' Irish immigrant with limited options. by Maureen Corrigan It's a quandary that even the best novelists have a hard ...
Brooklyn Papers, May 8, 2009
.../ GO Brooklyn / Carroll Gardens?Cobble Hill / Books Community Newspaper Group Irish up: Author Coim Toibin, author of ?Brooklyn,? will read at BookCourt on May 13. Email a friend Your name Your ...
Orlando Sentinel, May 6, 2009
...picking our guest reviewers by heritage: Sentinel staffer (and New York native) Kelly Fitzpatrick holds forth today on Brooklyn, the latest from Irish scribe Colm Tóibín: Eilis Lacey is from a small town in Ireland where she is great with ...
Thelondonpaper, May 5, 2009
...Kazuo Ishiguro and Colm Toibin both hit the mark Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro Nocturnes Kazuo Ishiguro Faber, £14.99 Related Articles Share this Article (What are these?) How interesting was this article? ISHIGURO obsessives ...
Telegraph, May 5, 2009
...Thomas Jones finds Colm Toibin's heroine struggling to reconcile the conflicting lures of small-town Ireland and big-city Brooklyn Eilis Lacey, the heroine of Colm Tibns quietly magnificent new novel, lives with her mother ...
Irish Independent, May 3, 2009
...Brooklyn and Enniscorthy are the twin backdrops for Colm Toibin's new novel, writes Emer O'Kelly Share Articles Topics Also in Books Search Query: Independent.ie Web Search Viking, ?13 ...
The Times, April 19, 2009
...Accolades and acclaim have been heaped on Colm Toibin from the start of his career. His debut novel, The South (1990), won the Irish Times Literature prize for a first book. His second novel, The Heather Blazing (1992 ...
Daily Princetonian, April 16, 2009
...Colm Toibin is a visiting lecturer in creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts. Toibin is an award-winning author and critic. He is teaching ENG 405: Dublin: The City ...
Tampa Bay Newspapers, April 14, 2009
...western, No. 3 in the Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch Series, available May 5 from Penguin Group. ? ?Brooklyn,? by Colm Toibin, Irish fiction, available May 5 from Simon and Schuster. ? ?Dark Places,? by Gillian Flynn, crime fiction, ...
Guardian Unlimited, March 27, 2009
...Colm Toibin. Photograph: Murdo Macleod Debut novelist Joanna Smith Rakoff was forced to change the title of her book after it emerged that acclaimed Irish author Colm Tóibín had plumped for ...
Star Phoenix, February 1, 2009
...who lives alone in a dark little flat.' I'm sure it's better than it sounds. * Colm Toibin, in his first novel since the breathtakingly good The Master, has written Brooklyn, which takes place in Ireland and Brooklyn in the 1950s and is ...
Colm Toibin's Books
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Mothers and SonsEach of the nine stories in this beautifully written, intensely intimate collection centers on a transformative moment that alters the delicate balance...Read More -
The Story of the NightA daring and deeply moving novel set in Argentina in the time of the Generals--a time when the streets are empty at night, and people have trained...Read More
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The MasterLike Michael Cunningham in The Hours, Colm Tóibín captures the extraordinary mind and heart of a great writer. Beautiful and profoundly...Read More
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Love in a Dark TimeColm Tóibín knows the languages of the outsider, the secret keeper, the gay man or woman. He knows the covert and overt language of...Read More
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The Blackwater LightshipIt is Ireland in the early 1990s. Helen, her mother, Lily, and her grandmother, Dora have come together to tend to Helen's brother, Declan, who is...Read More
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