Description: In Ireland in the early 1950s, Eilis Lacey is one of many who cannot find work at home. Thus when a job is offered in America, it is clear to everyone that she must go. Leaving behind her family and country, Eilis heads for unfamiliar Brooklyn, and to a crowded boarding house where the landlady's intense scrutiny and the small jealousies of her fellow residents only deepen her isolation. Slowly, the pain of parting is buried beneath the rhythms of her new life -- and finally, she begins to realize that she has found a sort of happiness. As she falls in love, news comes from home that forces her back to Enniscorthy -- not to the constrictions of her old life, but to new possibilities which conflict deeply with the life she has left behind in Brooklyn.
Brief description: Colm Toibin is the author of seven novels, including The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; The Testament of Mary, and Nora Webster, as well as two story collections. Three times shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Toibin lives in Dublin and New York.
Review Quotes: Praise for Brooklyn
"Written with mesmerizing power and skill." --Richard Eder, Boston Globe "Colm Tóibín is his generation's most gifted writer of love's complicated, contradictory power." --Floyd Skoot, Los Angeles Times "Tóibín creates suspense out of the simplest emotions: fear, love and, most poignantly, regret." --Time "Eilis' universal struggles with matters of the heart ... make this novel ... a moving, deeply satisfying read." --Entertainment Weekly "A gem of a novel... profound." --Maureen Corrigan, NPR "Quietly majestic." --Claire Messud, The New York Review of Books "A masterly tale... There is not a sentence or a thought out of place.... His finest fiction to date." --Bernard O'Donoghue, Irish Times "The simplicity of the style is breathtaking and it allows the reader to be completely immersed." --Elizabeth Strout, The Times (UK) "A triumph... One of those magically quiet novels that sneak up on readers and capture their imaginations." --USA Today