Will I love Brooklyn?

The description of the character’s internal turmoil had me hooked. I was there with her.

Ireland is one of my favorite locations for novels, as well as New York City, and this one toggles between both. It’s the story of a young girl in a small town with no opportunity who travels to find a place where she can thrive. It’s a story we’ve heard many times before, and yet it never gets old.

I was drawn to the aspects of this novel that uncover the realities of the 1950s from the perspective of a young, female immigrant with no resources. It deals with survival in a totally different way than the books I listed… show more.

This book and the related book Long Island, also written by Colm Tóibín, appeal to me because I have seen many Irish families separated by migration, and I know the long-term pain it can cause when people feel forced by necessity to leave Ireland.

I also live not far from the small and somewhat claustrophobic town of Enniscorthy in County Wexford–first or present home to so many of Tóibín’s characters. To me, Tóibín illustrates realistically the impact of emigration on divided families. He was the ‘laureate for Irish Fiction’ 2022–24.

Ellis Lacey, the protagonist of this book, embodies the spirit of both autonomy and connection that I hold as a core value. 

Even as Ellis discovers herself and her sexuality in America, she doesn't lose her connection to family and Ireland. Besides, I love Colm Toibin's writing. I get the sense he understands women.

This was a profound coming of age story with an unforgettable character, Eilis Lacey, who lives in a small town in Ireland with her mother and older sister, Rose. It takes place just after World War II. Eilis has no interest to leave her life, but after an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor her in America, she submits to her sister’s determination that this is right for her. Eilis is a meek young woman, does what is expected, and wishes to please her mother and sister. One of the traits of all three women is that each does… show more.

This is a true heroine’s journey. It is a historical immigrant story about a young girl who leaves Ireland for post-World War II America to make a better life for herself. As she makes her way in a strange land called Brooklyn, New York, she meets and falls in love with a young man of Italian descent.

Like Belladonna Marie Donato, the feisty heroine of my debut novel, Eilis Lacey of Brooklyn relies on her own strength, grit, and determination to overcome obstacles and make a successful new existence for herself. I am looking forward to Colm Toibin’s sequel, Long… show more.

Brooklyn is one of my favorite contemporary novels.

Written in spare, clear prose, the story reels you in as you follow a young Irish girl in the 1950s, who leaves her small town in Ireland to find work in Brooklyn. Homesickness sets in, but love happens too until she is called home at her sister’s death. Complications ensue! 

This novel has been made into a great film also.

The story of Eilis, a young woman who immigrates from her small town in Ireland to Brooklyn, is deceptively simple. And you, possibly new to the waiting room, sitting outside the chamber in which your beloved parent is undergoing a CT scan or MRI, feel a perhaps unwelcome kinship with Eilis: You are in a scary new country of your own. In New York, Eilis falls in love though she is forced to return home following a family tragedy. Of course, there’s no place like home to bring out the worst in people. Toibin writes with restraint and grace about… show more.