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Brooklyn

3.59 of 5 stars 3.59 · rating details · 13,210 ratings · 2,378 reviews

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 hard years following World War Two. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America -- to live and

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Hardcover, 262 pages

Published May 5th 2009 by Scribner (first published January 1st 2009)

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Mar 27, 2011 Barbara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: immigration

The subjects of immigration and maturation have been dealt with in a most compelling manner in this gentle, flowing novel by Colm Toibin. Eilis Lacey, in her late teens, has crossed the ocean alone from her small, close knit town in Ireland to a totally foreign world in Brooklyn. Toibin has deftly woven each experience in a realistic, sometimes heart rending manner. The descriptions of Eilis's homesickness are some of the most tender yet raw, sweet yet sad, completely evocative pages that I have...more

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Feb 12, 2013 David Carr rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: best, nyc

Brooklyn inspires me to think about the history of making choices in personal lives. At midcentury, when this book is set, the limits of free will were bounded by faith and moral judgment, by biology, guilt, and suffocating beliefs. Sin appeared in hard common parlance, yet forgiveness was more obscure. Perhaps ignorance ought to be cited as well, but it was part of the accusatory landscape, a given element of the time, like cigarettes and alcohol. People made poor choices simply to resolve ambi...more Brooklyn inspires me to think about the history of making choices in personal lives. At midcentury, when this book is set, the limits of free will were bounded by faith and moral judgment, by biology, guilt, and suffocating beliefs. Sin appeared in hard common parlance, yet forgiveness was more obscure. Perhaps ignorance ought to be cited as well, but it was part of the accusatory landscape, a given element of the time, like cigarettes and alcohol. People made poor choices simply to resolve ambiguities, to construct a small fenced haven, or to rescue themselves from their families. By twenty, or sooner, a life path was set, and barring accidents, one followed the course as prescribed. It is one reason for the slow change of the world.

Here Colm Toibin writes impeccably from within the mind of Eilis, a young Irish woman, starting out as an immigrant in postwar Brooklyn, living bullied and friendless in a cloistered rooming house, working in a ladies' department store while studying bookkeeping. She finds her way and crafts an independent life. The mysteries of her narrow experience and progress are told through her own confusions and momentary clarities, as though Toibin had copied her letters or stolen her diaries. She begins to find herself, to express an adult's self-confidence, and to inspire trust and affection in her parochial Irish world. At a Catholic church dance she and a young Italian man are drawn to each other. Then events -- a loss, a voyage, a return to the past -- teach their lessons to the innocent.

The fine craft of this novel reminded me of how much fiction depends on the many small but lifelong injustices we inherit at birth. Fate is local, internal, familial far more than it is cosmic. When we think we are most free, such injustices come to us, to shut down our imagination of the difference we want to live. I do not find solace or joy in these novels, and I do not admire innocence for its own sake. The purpose of innocence is to disappear. What I found here is a kind of greatness central to the purpose of fiction: lives explained, fates determined, innocence inevitably compromised. I am piling up books by Colm Toibin; I hope to find more of this mastery in other lives he has inhabited. Brooklyn is a very fine, lingering book.(less)

9 likes · like · see review

Sep 28, 2012 Alanna rated it 4 of 5 stars

What an interesting read. Toibin's style of writing is like nothing I've ever read before. In some ways it seems so simple, and then there'd be passages where he described his protagonist's feelings, and it was like he understood her so well it would take my breath away. And although it's a fairly simple story that often feels like it's unfolding with or without anyone deciding how things should happen (especially at the beginning, when it is decided that Eilis should go to America), I still had...more

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Oct 18, 2011 Jennifer (aka EM) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: for-diane

A beautiful story, a careful, slow build of character. Impeccable writing - spare, intense, precise. Deceptively simple at the sentence level; yet so perfectly matched to the character Toibin is creating and the story he is telling. This writing is stunning in its simplicity and its power.

Eilis is a wonderful protagonist, whose inner conflicts are shown through her experiences. At the same time, Toibin takes us into her head and lets us see how she works through major decision points. And it's t...more

14 likes · like · see review

Jul 01, 2009 Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jeanette by: Julie

Shelves: all-fiction, america, europe-and-british-isles, four-star-fiction

Marvelously simple, yet deceptively complex. The writing is remarkable for its descriptive clarity. Not one word is wasted.

I think what will determine your experience of this book is whether or not you can relate in any way to Eilis, the main character. I'm a completely different person(and I do mean completely) than I was when I was her age. As I was reading, I cast my mind back to the time I was her age and I knew I probably would have responded much the same if I had been thrown into similar...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Lennie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Eilis Lacey is an Irish girl who lives in Enniscorthy with her mother and sister. She works at Kelly’s grocery store on Sundays and takes bookkeeping classes at a vocational school but her family wants a better life for her and so they decide that she should go to America. If it was up to her she would prefer to stay at home where everything is familiar to her rather than start a new life in a country she has never been to before but she doesn’t want to disappoint her family either so she finall...more Eilis Lacey is an Irish girl who lives in Enniscorthy with her mother and sister. She works at Kelly’s grocery store on Sundays and takes bookkeeping classes at a vocational school but her family wants a better life for her and so they decide that she should go to America. If it was up to her she would prefer to stay at home where everything is familiar to her rather than start a new life in a country she has never been to before but she doesn’t want to disappoint her family either so she finally agrees to go and makes the long journey to New York by ship. When she arrives in America she settles in Brooklyn and rents a room in Mrs. Kehoe’s house. At first she struggles adapting to her new life and is extremely homesick but she quickly learns that the feeling passes so long as she keeps herself busy so Eilis decides to attend Brooklyn College at night after she is finished with her shift at the department store. Then one night she meets a man named Tony at a church-sponsored dance. He is considerate, interesting, and good-looking and he comes from an Italian family. They end up falling in love with each other. When a tragedy happens in her family, Eilis is asked to return home. She becomes torn because on the one hand she doesn’t want to leave Brooklyn or Tony. On the other hand, she is her mother’s daughter and she feels a sense of duty to be there for her. Brooklyn is a story about a girl who has finally found her way in life and isn’t about to give it up.

I thought this story was just okay. I especially liked how the author captured the immigrant’s experience and the reader has a sense of what that was like but I didn’t enjoy the main character as much. I wish Eilis was a stronger person and there were times I wanted her to stand up for herself but perhaps I’m being too critical. After all, the story takes place after WWII so Eilis is probably responding as any person would who is from her generation. Nonetheless, I was hoping she would stop being afraid of hurting other people’s feelings and do what she felt was right for her. I give this book three stars.
(less)

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May 25, 2010 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Brooklyn starts out as a nice little slice of life in Ireland in the early 50’s. Then Eilis, the younger of two sisters still living at home with their mother, has a whole new life arranged for her in New York. It took more than a little upper lip stiffness for a young woman to cross the stormy seas and settle in a foreign land where the only person she knew was the local priest who arranged the whole thing. Sea sickness gave way to homesickness, but her strength of character prevailed. The stor...more Brooklyn starts out as a nice little slice of life in Ireland in the early 50’s. Then Eilis, the younger of two sisters still living at home with their mother, has a whole new life arranged for her in New York. It took more than a little upper lip stiffness for a young woman to cross the stormy seas and settle in a foreign land where the only person she knew was the local priest who arranged the whole thing. Sea sickness gave way to homesickness, but her strength of character prevailed. The story then settled into how she built her new life, complete with a job at a clothing store, night classes to learn bookkeeping, relations with her catty fellow boarders, and ultimately Tony, his brothers, and the Dodgers. It was a more innocent era (even in the big city). At that point I was wondering if it was possible to be nostalgic for a time and place you’ve never experienced. People were generally nicer – more thoughtful. Then again, I wondered: was an era like that when polite behavior and higher standards were de rigueur more likely to come down hard on subtle deviations. Would social acceptance be too narrowly defined? Seemed like something interesting to consider in light of the book’s focus on manners, integrity and the social fabric of the day.

I was happy enough with the manufactured, third-order conflicts. It helped that despite her passive nature, Eilis was mostly likable and observant. (I’d be curious to know if women who read this think Toibin did a credible job getting inside the head of a young woman, conditioned by the times.)

Then, towards the end, BAM! -- you get genuine, first-order conflict. I won’t spoil it for anyone, but will mention that certain dilemmas were laid out well: old life vs. new, family duty vs. commitments to others, the growing comfort of the here and now vs. the fading memories of pleasures past, and romantic prospects vs. … what (?). There’s a pay-off to reading through to the end. Which way will the wind blow? Will Eilis be blown with it? It was a story simply told and all the more forceful for it.(less)

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Jun 11, 2009 Jacquelyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is about a young woman from Ireland who moves to Brooklyn in the 1950s for more job opportunities. The book is mostly about this girl growing and finding herself in a new city. The interactions between the characters is definitely the best part of the book, since all the charaters were well developed, and their various expectations of this girl. It was very interesting to see how this girl evolved and found her place in a new country. However, I was disappointed in the last section of...more

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Jun 23, 2009 Chuck rated it 4 of 5 stars

"You can't go home again." Or can you? Perhaps it depends on where (or what) home is. Colm Tóibín explores this theme in his beautifully crafted tale of a young woman who emigrates in the 1950s from her home in Enniscorthy, Ireland to Brooklyn, New York. She struggles to make a life for herself in her new world, but just as she finds a high level of comfort in America, a family emergency summons her back to Ireland. There she finds herself deeply torn between her old home and her new one. (Yes,...more

8 likes · like · see review

Nov 13, 2011 Lavinia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, fiction, in-en

For what it's worth, the action could have taken place at the end of the 19th century, the beginning of the 20th or during the Great Depression. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I didn't feel the '50s, and I mean that in the good way. I was absorbed by the story and the characters - and Brooklyn and the small Irish town are themselves characters - and if you ask me, the 4th part is what makes everything worth reading. Of course the other 3 are interesting - Eilis' decision to leave Ireland...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jun 20, 2012 Kathryn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, indie-next-list

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I think this review says it all for me "A classical coming-of-age story, pure, unsenationalized, quietly profound...There are no antagonists in this novel, no psychodramas, no angst. There is only the sound of a young woman slowly and deliberately stepping into herself, learning to make and stand behind her choices, finding herself." - Pam Houston

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 03, 2012 Judy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a deceptively slight novel, but every word and incident is carefully chosen, and I am sure it would repay rereading, as with other Tóibín books. Small everyday details gradually build to an unbearable emotional intensity.

Eilis, a young woman living in a small Irish community with limited opportunities in the 1950s, reluctantly agrees to emigrate to the US when her sister and the local priest find a job there for her. She has difficulty settling in to her job at a department store and he...more

6 likes · like · see review

Mar 25, 2010 Seán rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: irish-shite, 2010, borrowed-from-ma

Tóibín's greatest talent is in offering up deceptively simple tales that, on first blush, seem to be engaging yet not terribly portentous stories, but then open up wide when you realize the hidden dynamism of Colm's self-denying heroes.

I've also read The Heather Blazing and The Master, and in each Tóibín employs a laconic method of storytelling to explore the weaknesses that occlude people's vision. In The Master, Tóibín's achievement was the careful revealing of the sorrow of a repressed Henry...more

11 likes · like · see review

May 08, 2010 Becky rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bek-s-books-of-the-world

Gentle and subtly suspenseful book about an Irish immigrant girl in Brooklyn in the early 1950s - 1951? Be forewarned that it’s a tear-jerker. Toibin writes beautifully and the structure is straightforward. The issues of Catholicism and national pride ring true. Home and grief and love are important themes.

Plot: A visiting priest arranges for the young Eilis to go to the US in order to have a better future for herself. She leaves her poor Irish home and in New York undergoes a number of changes...more

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Mar 31, 2009 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The premise of "Brooklyn" is not new; however, it"feels" new in Colm Toibin's capable, talented hands. I found the novel highly engaging, beautifully written, and absolutely delightful.

"Brooklyn" tells the story of Eilis Lacey, an Irish girl from a small village who emigrates to the U.S. with hopes of bettering her life and career with opportunities afforded in the new world. The young emigre's story is told with such straightforwardness and simplicity that, on the surface, it seems like a mora...more

15 likes · like · see review

Nov 19, 2011 Texbritreader rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: irish, literary-fiction, novel

A truly lovely novel; written in unadorned, crystal-clear prose the story of Eilis Lacey, a post WWII Irish immigrant in Brooklyn, unfolds with the reality of life. Toibin adroitly captures the profound psychological and emotional divisions that occurs when a person leaves behind their home for a life in a new country. The immersion in a foreign society which feels like drowning, the relief as one learns a new way to be in the world, the onset of homesickness, the excitement when you begin to ma...more A truly lovely novel; written in unadorned, crystal-clear prose the story of Eilis Lacey, a post WWII Irish immigrant in Brooklyn, unfolds with the reality of life. Toibin adroitly captures the profound psychological and emotional divisions that occurs when a person leaves behind their home for a life in a new country. The immersion in a foreign society which feels like drowning, the relief as one learns a new way to be in the world, the onset of homesickness, the excitement when you begin to master the challenges of your new environment and the different self which begins to emerge are all rendered here with sublime verisimilitude.

The portrait of the central character is pitch perfect, from her warm yet sheltered life in the shadow of her beloved sister, Rose, to her fledgling struggles as a student of accounting and shop clerk and her budding romance with the handsome Italian American plumber, Tony. It is possible to sympathize throughout with her ever evolving feelings largely because Eilis is always authentic. In fact, all the many characters seem to live and breathe on the page with a startling acuity, a major accomplishment in a novel as lean as this one.

The author does a beautiful job of demonstrating the impossibilities of a bifurcated life, illuminating the painful certainty that one can not live in two worlds at the same time. We watch as the landlady Mrs.Kehoe, the manager Mrs. Fortini, Father Flood and Professor Rosenblum now people Eilis' life instead of her widowed Mother, her sister and the other village folk. A slow but sure alteration begins to occur in her as she rises in the ranks at Bartocci's, excels at Brooklyn College, changes her hair and makeup and buys a new American wardrobe. The deep connection of custom, place and human relationships on identity has seldom been delineated better or with less apparent effort. Growth is change and can be both liberating and painful; we realize that when one grows apart from ones home and family the differences can hurt both oneself and those left behind.

The major conflict comes late when Eilis must make a visit home but don't be fooled, despite the subject matter, this is not a story you have read before. The author manages to deliver some unexpectedly poignant twists which force both Eilis and the reader to examine her new life and ask some difficult questions. The divided loyalties of the human heart and the power of the now to eclipse our plans and obligations work to confuse our protagonist about her future. The mutability of her feelings and romantic attachments are surprising and frustrating for both the character and the reader. She experiences the dual nature of her own identity, as she sees the possibility that her new life can also be replaced. It becomes apparent that she must make a final choice. Then fate, in the form of the deliciously malign Mrs. Kelly, steps in and provides the impetus for her ultimate decision. As so often in our own lives, more of the outcome is under the influence of external factors than we would like and happy or sad endings are often a matter of interpretation.(less)

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Jun 06, 2009 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Julie by: The Seattle Times

Shelves: historical-fiction, ireland-theme-setting, usa-historical, read-2009, best-of-2009

This gentle, quietly resonant novel showed me a new side of Colm Tóibín's writing. At first blush it seems a simple coming-of-age story of a young Irish immigrant alone in New York. But Tóibín, though he writes with affection, keeps enough distance from his characters to allow his reader to form opinions about the choices these characters make and the motivations behind their actions.

He shows, rather than tells, the bewilderment and liberation that are part of a willing immigrant's experience;...more

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Feb 17, 2010 Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm about midway through this, but I don't know that I've ever read a more accurate and painful essence of homesickness--I kind of wept on the F train this morning. The description is right up there with the cinematic depictions of the mental states of drunkenness in Mean Streets and jet lag in Lost in Translation.

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Feb 20, 2011 Lucy_van_pelt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow, I would have never thought I'd like this as I couldn't even finish The Master. This is completely different, the writing style is extremely bare & matter of fact. There is no hidden agenda. Very affecting.

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Jan 17, 2011 Peggy L rated it 2 of 5 stars

Although I vacilated between sympathizing with the main character and wondering at her thought processes, in the end, I was disappointed in her behavior, choices and the ending of this book.

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Mar 13, 2011 Jay F rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-english-language

Brooklyn is my second encounter with Colm Tóibín , twice short-listed and once long-listed (for Brooklyn) for the Mann Booker Prize. Both novels were somewhat similar in theme—a theme, apparently, that threads through other of Toibin’s works. In the Story of the Night, a gay Argentinean with British roots struggles with his own identity during the time of the generals. In Brooklyn, an Irish girl struggles to come of age in the 1950’s in Brooklyn’s émigré community. And Tóibín’s writing style—alm...more

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May 05, 2013 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I first read about this book in an article that appeared in the Boston Sunday Globe on St. Patrick's Day of this year headlined "Retracing the Irish diaspora to America" by Katharine Whittemore. Being of Irish descent, I'm fascinated by the Irish experience particularly in the 19th Century. Although Brooklyn takes place in the early 1950's, I enjoyed it very much as it beautifully describes the cultural struggle that is faced by many expatriates. Eilis Lacey who is from a small Irish village has...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Robert rated it 2 of 5 stars

Brooklyn is a quiet, conventional immigrant's tale with the focus on an Irish girl named Eilis Lacey who is fostered in her journey to America by a kindly activist priest, Father Flood, and finds work in a women's shop, then a path to advancement as a bookkeeper through a Brooklyn College night school, and then an Italian-American, Tony, with whom she doubtfully falls in love and agrees to marry before she returns to Ireland to be with her mother for a month after receiving the shocking news tha...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Lauren rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

Style of Writing: 4
Excellent writing style, no argument there. The way Toibin writes you really feel like you are there in Brooklyn with Eilis. The only problem I have with his style is at times he is a bit repetitive, restating things that have already been said or going into A LOT of detail on a relatively non-important subject. (ex. When he is describing what Nelly sells at her shop in the first couple chapters. One or two lists of items would have sufficed.)
Originality/ Creativity: 3
Nothin...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Pamela rated it 3 of 5 stars

A beuatifully rendered story of a young woman forced to emigrate to America by her well-meaing sister. What struck me about this novel is the tragic nature of the protagonist Eilis; in her passivity and need to please he family, she ends up agreeing to leave the comfort of her surroundings in order to pursue a better life. A reluctant emgrant, Eilis is a simple soul, striving for nothing beyond a traditional life in her home town of Enniscorthy. Since Eilis is both an intelligent and resourceful...more

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Jan 09, 2013 kathleen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read Brooklyn in one sitting last night after dinner. I haven't read a book in awhile that pulls you in so quickly that you can't put it down! The story is deceptively simple -- set in the early 1950's, Eilis, a young Irish girl, comes to America for work. It was never her plan to leave Ireland, but she didn't have prospects at home and an opportunity for work came up, so she found herself in Brooklyn. You get the sense that while Eilis seems to just react to the events in her life without muc...more

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Nov 26, 2012 Tracy King rated it 3 of 5 stars

I would have given it 3.5 stars:

Book Club met this evening to discuss Brooklyn: A Novel, by Colm Toibin. It is the story of Eilis Lacey a young woman living in small-town Ireland in the years following World War Two. Though skilled at bookkeeping, she can’t find a job in the depressed Irish economy. An Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America -- to live and work in a Brooklyn neighborhood "just like Ireland" -- she decides she must go, leaving her mother and her sister behin...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Jo Ann Hall rated it 5 of 5 stars

A heart-tugging coming of age novel, this little gem of a book has an application for all ages. The style has absolute integrity, and rarely have I felt such sympathy for characters.

Written for ginandcookies.com blog:

A brisk fall evening edged with early darkness beckons toward you, welcoming you into an overstuffed chair with a light throw stationed nearby should the dipping temperatures require it. You ease into the chair and just before you reach for the remote you see the pristine paperback...more

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Nov 03, 2012 Diane Yannick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Yep, I've read it twice and decided to give it 5 stars. This book is storytelling at its best. The writing tells the story without any extra flourishes just to prove that the author can write. No extra quotes that you would highlight and then reconsider. Just a fine, engaging story of what it was like to be an Irish immigrant in Brooklyn in the 1950's. What it's like to go back to Ireland and look at Brooklyn from a distance.

Eilis Lacey is a young lady who tries her best to live the life her mo...more Yep, I've read it twice and decided to give it 5 stars. This book is storytelling at its best. The writing tells the story without any extra flourishes just to prove that the author can write. No extra quotes that you would highlight and then reconsider. Just a fine, engaging story of what it was like to be an Irish immigrant in Brooklyn in the 1950's. What it's like to go back to Ireland and look at Brooklyn from a distance.

Eilis Lacey is a young lady who tries her best to live the life her mother and sister Rose plan for her. She tries to be a good girl who follows the rules. She studies bookkeeping at Brooklyn College and works in a department store. Her relationship with Mrs. Kehoe, her landlady, is finely tuned. Often the reader learns more about the characters from what is left unsaid then through what is. Some characters, like Jim Farrelly, don't let you know them very well which allows for reader speculation. Others, like Tony, just lay it all out for you and you don't have to do much wondering.

Some scenes linger such as the boat trip from Ireland, parish dances, boarding house dinners, and the farewell scene between Eilis and her mom. It was a time of many class distinctions (Italians/Irish, scrubbers/office workers, floor/office jobs) and rigid rules of etiquette. The Dodgers were revered with gusto and priests, like Father Flood, were unconditionally respected. The settings and characters came alive for me.

I often see people give books low ratings because they didn't like certain characters or the way a book ended. I believe that it's an author's prerogative to create characters that do not behave as we want them to. It is NOT an author's job to create characters that are all easy to like and to whom we can relate. As readers, I don't believe that we should have preconceived ideas of how a book should end. Rather we need to examine what it is that we expect and what the author is giving us. It is the meshing of these two notions that allows us to grow as thinkers.(less)

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Oct 30, 2012 Chris Witkowski rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have heard about this book for a long time, and just recently when I came across a review of it in a Nick Hornby essay (he loved it) I decided I had to read it. I wasn't disappointed! Brooklyn is the simple story of a young woman, Eilis, (had a hard time knowing how to pronounce this name)who, through the kind ministrations of her sister and a priest, leaves Ireland to start a new life in 1950's Brooklyn. She endures unbearable homesickness at first, but gradually becomes accustomed to life i...more

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About Colm Tóibín

(From the authors website - http://www.colmtoibin.com/content/bio... )
"Colm Toibin was born in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford in 1955. He studied at University College Dublin and lived in Barcelona between 1975 and 1978. Out of his experience in Barcelona be produced two books, the novel ‘The South’ (shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and winner of the Irish Times/ Aer Lingus First Fiction...more (From the authors website - http://www.colmtoibin.com/content/bio... )
"Colm Toibin was born in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford in 1955. He studied at University College Dublin and lived in Barcelona between 1975 and 1978. Out of his experience in Barcelona be produced two books, the novel ‘The South’ (shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and winner of the Irish Times/ Aer Lingus First Fiction Award) and ‘Homage to Barcelona’, both published in 1990. When he returned to Ireland in 1978 he worked as a journalist for ‘In Dublin’, ‘Hibernia’ and ‘The Sunday Tribune’, becoming features editor of ‘In Dublin’ in 1981 and editor of Magill, Ireland’s current affairs magazine, in 1982. He left Magill in 1985 and travelled in Africa and South America. His journalism from the 1980s was collected in ‘The Trial of the Generals’ (1990). His other work as a journalist and travel writer includes ‘Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border’ (1987) and ‘The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe’ (1994). His other novels are: ‘The Heather Blazing (1992, winner of the Encore Award); ‘The Story of the Night’ (1996, winner of the Ferro-Grumley Prize); ‘The Blackwater Lightship’ (1999, shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Prize and the Booker Prize and made into a film starring Angela Lansbury); ‘The Master’ (2004, winner of the Dublin IMPAC Prize; the Prix du Meilleur Livre; the LA Times Novel of the Year; and shortlisted for the Booker Prize); ‘Brooklyn’ (2009, winner of the Costa Novel of the Year). His short story collections are ‘Mothers and Sons’ (2006, winner of the Edge Hill Prize) and ‘The Empty Family (2010). His play ‘Beauty in a Broken Place’ was performed at the Peacock Theatre in Dublin in 2004. His other books include: ‘The Modern Library: the 200 Best Novels Since 1950’ (with Carmen Callil); ‘Lady Gregory’s Toothbrush’ (2002); ‘Love in a Dark Time: Gay Lives from Wilde to Almodovar’ (2002) and ‘All a Novelist Needs: Essays on Henry James’ (2010). He has edited ‘The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction’. His work has been translated into thirty languages. In 2008, a book of essays on his work ‘Reading Colm Toibin’, edited by Paul Delaney, was published. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Ulster and from University College Dublin. He is a regular contributor to the Dublin Review, the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books. In 2006 he was appointed to the Arts Council in Ireland. He has twice been Stein Visiting Writer at Stanford University and also been a visiting writer at the Michener Center at the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently Leonard Milberg Lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton University.

Colm Toibin’s collection of stories ‘The Empty Family’ will be published in the UK in October 2010 and in the US and Canada in January 2011. His collection of essays on Henry James, ‘All a Novelist Needs’ will be published in November 2010."(less)

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4954833-brooklyn?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348823520l/4954833.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4954833-brooklyn?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín[/url]

Brooklyn

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