Shortlisted for the Galaxy International Author of the Year 2010.

December 2010 Good Housekeeping selection.

Good Reading for Christmas by Maureen Lipman...

'The sensitive man in my life will get Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn. He portrays the young Irish girl Eilis Lacey by never directly telling the reader what she is thinking. If men want to know more about women, this is the one to get.’

Winner of the Costa Novel Award 2009.

Costa Book Awards 2009 Judges' comment: "A wonderfully-observed story of love and loss."

A great family drama about a young girl moving from Ireland to New Yok in search of work in the 1950's. Just as she feels life is going somewhere in Brooklyn she has to return to Ireland and the pleas of her family to stay. This is a beautifully told, atmospheric, coming-of-age drama.

Synopsis

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.

Reviews

'With this elating and humane novel, Colm Toibin has produced a masterwork' Sunday Times

'The most compelling and moving portrait of a young woman I have read in a long time' -- Zoe Heller Guardian, Books of the Year

'A work of such skill, understatement and sly jewelled merriment could haunt your life' -- Ali Smith TLS, Books of the Year

'Suffused with humane depth, funny, affecting, deftly plotted ... a novel of magnificent accomplishment -- Peter Kemp Sunday Times, Novel of the Year

'Brooklyn moved me more than any other book this year -- Nicholas Hytner Observer, Books of the Year

'A beautifully crafted work that transformed ordinary lives into something extraordinary' Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year

About the Author

Colm Toibin was born in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford in the southeast of Ireland in 1955. Three of his grandparents were born in the town or close to the town. One great-grandfather owned Whelan's, or Whaelan's, public house (since demolished)on the Island Road; another great- grandfather worked as a stonemason in the town; another was a small farmer outside the town; the fourth great- grandfather was a farmer near Tullow in County Carlow. His grandfather Patrick Tobin was a member of the IRB, as was his grand-uncle Michael Tobin. Patrick Tobin took part in the 1916 Rebellion in Enniscorthy and was subsequently interned in Frongach in Wales. (See 'The Rising' by Bairbre Toibin; see also 'Frongoch' by ; see also 'The Easter Week Rising in Enniscorthy' by Henry Goff in 'Enniscorthy 2000', published by St Senan's Parish to mark the advent of the third millenium in Enniscorthy.) His uncle Padraig Toibin, who died in 1995, worked as a journalist on the local newspaper The Enniscorthy Echo. He fought in the War of Independence and on the Republican side in the Civil War. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation