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Long Island (Eilis Lacey Series) Hardcover – May 7, 2024
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From the beloved, critically acclaimed, bestselling author comes a spectacularly moving novel featuring Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic heroine of Brooklyn, Tóibín’s most popular work in twenty years.
Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber and one of four Italian American brothers, all of whom live in neighboring houses on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island, with their wives and children and Tony’s parents, a huge extended family. It is the spring of 1976 and Eilis is now forty with two teenage children. Though her ties to Ireland remain stronger than those that hold her to her new land and home, she has not returned in decades.
One day, when Tony is at work an Irishman comes to the door asking for Eilis by name. He tells her that his wife is pregnant with Tony’s child and that when the baby is born, he will not raise it but instead deposit it on Eilis’s doorstep. It is what Eilis does—and what she refuses to do—in response to this stunning news that makes Tóibín’s novel so riveting and suspenseful.
Long Island is a gorgeous story “about a woman thrashing against the constraints of fate” (Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air). It is “a wonder, rich with yearning and regret” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis).
- Print length304 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherScribner
- Publication dateMay 7, 2024
- Dimensions6 x 1 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101476785112
- ISBN-13978-1476785110
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From the Publisher
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Price | $11.99$11.99 | $23.80$23.80 |
Explore Eilis’s Roots and Colm Tóibín’s County Wexford | Join a young Eilis as she immigrates from Ireland to 1950s Brooklyn: a “triumph…sneaks up on readers and captures their imaginations” (USA Today). | A luminous story of a young widow finding her voice: “Miraculous...Tóibín portrays Nora with tremendous sympathy and understanding” (The Washington Post). |
Editorial Reviews
Review
"I was captivated. A wonderful page-turner to start your summer reading.” —Oprah Winfrey
“A brilliant novel. Beautifully crafted… makes for a riveting, wonderful read.” —Elizabeth Strout, The Guardian
“Eilis is an interesting and vivid character because she manages to make her destiny her choice... In her own mind, and in the eyes of sympathetic readers, she is free.” —New York Times Book Review
“Deeply felt but resolutely unsentimental… Tóibín uses masterly restraint to dramatize how lives can be destabilized by desire.” —The New Yorker
“Stunning.” —People
"Tóibín, a master of his art, exploits to exquisite effect at the end, leaving us to wonder, yet again, what’s next.” —Los Angeles Times
“Momentous and hugely affecting. These pendant novels, will be the fiction for which this wonderful writer is best remembered.” —Wall Street Journal
"Tóibín has created a novel not to be missed.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Rich and doubly suspenseful… Tóibín, a master of his art, exploits to exquisite effect at the end, leaving us to wonder, yet again, what’s next.” —Los Angeles Times
“Dazzling yet devastating… Tóibín is simply one of the world’s best living literary writers…” —The Boston Globe
"Entrancing... riveting from the first page." —The Economist
“About secrets and dreams and the conflict of desire over duty… Long Island is a wonder, rich with yearning and regret.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Tóibín’s storytelling is rich and full of tension as he explores the complexities of life, the decisions we make, and the consequences that result.” —Glamour
“The quiet, moving story is told from the perspectives of different characters, each with a heartbreaking inability to express what they truly desire.” —AARP
“Fifteen years ago, Colm Tóibín won readers’ hearts with his best-selling novel Brooklyn. Now, with the sequel, Long Island, he just might break them… Tóibín writes beautifully about the struggle between the comfort of the familiar and the hope for something better.” —Columbia Magazine
“Tóibín’s latest sees the return of one of his most beloved heroines from his novel Brooklyn and deftly explores the longings of a woman who finds herself alone in her tilted marriage.” —The Chicago Review of Books
“A close observer of human nature, Tóibín writes with great depth of longing… Often it is what is unsaid, contained in the pauses, that grips the reader’s attention. There is plenty of beauty to savor.” —BookPage
“Quietly devastating… Tóibín is brilliant at tallying the weight of what goes unsaid between people… Tóibín’s mastery is on full display here.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Tóibín writes with unparalleled fluidity and grace. Each character is intricately drawn with psychological acuity, emerging as fully, almost achingly human. Eilis is complicated, fearless, and compelling, much like her brilliant creator.” —Booklist, STARRED review
“Eilis’ fate is determined in a plot twist worthy of Edith Wharton…the author is a master of quiet, restrained prose, calmly observing the mores and mindsets of provincial Ireland. A moving portrait of rueful middle age and the failure to connect.” —Kirkus, STARRED review
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Scribner (May 7, 2024)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1476785112
- ISBN-13 : 978-1476785110
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #65 in 20th Century Historical Fiction (Books)
- #139 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- #326 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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Oprah Recommends Long Island
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Review of Long Island/Worth a read? No spoilers!
Marie Dubuque
About the author
Colm Toibin is the author of ten novels, including The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; 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 and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and has been named as the laureate for Irish fiction for 2022-2025 by the Arts Council of Ireland. Three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Toibin lives in Dublin and New York.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book riveting, entertaining, and perfect for summer reading. They praise the writing quality as beautiful, simple, and forthright. However, some find the issues frustrating, convoluted, and unresolved. Opinions are mixed on the ending, with some finding it engaging and interesting, while others say it leaves them hanging. Readers also have mixed opinions on the character development, with some finding them rich and realistic, while others say they're flat and without much personality.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book riveting, entertaining, and engrossing. They also say it's worth the time and a fast read.
"...I can’t let them go, they are flawed, unforgettable, human. Eilis especially is inscribed in my personal atlas of eternal literary characters...." Read more
"Excellent novel taking the reader on life journey of Eilis Lacey 20 years after she married and moved to Long Island in the first novel, “Brooklyn.”..." Read more
"...But that’s a relatively minor issue. The book is a decent enough summer read, except when the story abruptly ends, making the reader feel that it’s..." Read more
"...Not exactly an uplifting tale, but quite a worthwhile book." Read more
Customers find the writing quality of the book beautiful and simple. They also appreciate the simple but exquisite dialogue and well-paced writing. Readers describe the book as a family drama and an artfully constructed domestic drama.
"...It is just as restrained as it needs to be, while also being fulsome and forthright. You never know what will happen next...." Read more
"...However, there is no doubt that this book is beautifully written, just couldn’t hold my attention!" Read more
"...Toibin has a marvelous way with words. I felt I was right there with Eilis, facing the difficult decisions she had in front of her...." Read more
"...The drama is well written and it’s easy to imagine being amongst the characters in Long Island and Ireland" Read more
Customers find the book sequel warm and funny.
"Great continuation of the prior book. Lots of twists and turns" Read more
"Loved this book and also Brooklyn, living on long Island myself made it even more interesting...." Read more
"Loved this sequel to Brooklyn. Warm and funny. So many choices to be made, throughout the story and at the end. Can’t wait for the next volume." Read more
"Wonderful sequel to his book Brooklyn. I wish it was longer. I look forward to a another one of his great novels!" Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the ending of the book. Some mention it's engaging, interesting, and thrilling. Others say it leaves them hanging and leaves many unanswered questions.
"This is a very good story but I was so disappointed with the ending. There is none! There was no resolution to anything...." Read more
"...It’s real, folks! It’s suspenseful and thrilling, and the stakes just get higher and tighter as the pages turn...." Read more
"...The characters became boring, and the book drug on! The ending is kind of a cliff hanger, but the writer doesn’t know if this will be a trilogy!..." Read more
"...all the conversations and personalities in Ireland was a bit long winded and confusing. Perhaps it could have been cut shorter...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the character development. Some mention the characters are rich, while others say they're unlikable and unrealistic.
"...The characters became boring, and the book drug on! The ending is kind of a cliff hanger, but the writer doesn’t know if this will be a trilogy!..." Read more
"...The drama is well written and it’s easy to imagine being amongst the characters in Long Island and Ireland" Read more
"Proliferating families of characters like a Russian novel. I gave up trying to remember who was who...." Read more
"...The book was a clear and simple narrative, but it lacked resonance and fully realized characters...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the uplifting story. Some mention it's poignant and good at parsing out human emotions. They also say the book gives a great description of life in a small town. However, others say it's not exactly an uplifting tale and is depressing with unlikable characters and boring lives.
"...But Long Island? Not just the best of the two books, but a deeply felt surprise...." Read more
"...Not exactly an uplifting tale, but quite a worthwhile book." Read more
"...It gives a great description of life in a small town. Although the is set primarily in Ireland, it could be small town USA...." Read more
"...He is so good at parsing out human emotions especially in times of crisis...." Read more
Customers find the book frustrating, convoluted, and disappointing. They also mention it's tedious and repetitive.
"...There is none! There was no resolution to anything. Not one single issue was resolved...." Read more
"What a disappointment, and a cheap “set up” by the author at the end to what surely will continue in his next book!..." Read more
"...some of the characters behaviors while understandable made them very easy to dislike...." Read more
"...terms of plot and scope I STILL felt I was reading the author’s sketchy first draft." Read more
Customers find the resolution of the book convoluted.
"...There is none! There was no resolution to anything. Not one single issue was resolved...." Read more
"...There was no resolution to anything. Hope there is a follow up book." Read more
"Others have said it. There is no resolution. The book ends without our knowing what’s to become of the characters...." Read more
"This book was certainly gripping, but there is no resolution and it just ends with the characters being dragged along by all the outside forces in..." Read more
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Long Island takes place twenty years post-Brooklyn, sometime in the 1970s now, and Irish-born Eilis has two teenage children with her husband, Italian American born Tony Fiorello. Tony has made a mess of things just recently (all for the reader to discover in the first few pages), and it is practically impossible for Eilis to think peacefully on her own. She is surrounded here in a cul-de-sac by Tony’s family in several of the houses. Everyone in the family knows everyone’s business, it’s just too much for Eilis right now.
Eilis’s mother and a brother are in Ireland, and have never met her children. She resolves to return home for a long visit, stay several weeks (if not months) before her children fly up to accompany her for their first visit. Of course, there’s drama in the gossipy village of Enniscorthy where Eilis grew up, and ghosts from her past that are living, breathing individuals, are ready to haunt or heat up at every turn. Besides her difficult mother, there’s the man she left behind, Jim Farrell. He runs one of the most popular pubs in town. Has never married.
Most of the novel is set in Ireland, as we follow Eilis and her children. The pace is perfect, never ever a dull moment. The prose reads with the alacrity of a gazelle, sprinting freely, yet fully dimensional in details and the authenticity of human dilemma. It’s real, folks! It’s suspenseful and thrilling, and the stakes just get higher and tighter as the pages turn. Oh, those stakes---a few went almost straight through my heart and bled me out.
Don’t worry---there is nothing melodramatic about this novel—that’s just me with my heart in their teeth. It is just as restrained as it needs to be, while also being fulsome and forthright. You never know what will happen next. The riskier the conduct, the more your own heart will pump and panic in equal measure.
What you have and what you left behind rub up against each other, and Eilis is compelled by unfinished business back in Enniscorthy. Broken bonds lay open and exposed, the harm to all the characters gradually revealed. As Eilis appraises her life and considers her options, she fully grasps the urgency to go back to her past in order to secure her future.
I must add my awe at how Tóibín develops characters with such sublime attention to the minute contradictions in human behavior, and how our outward-facing temperament may be highly interpretive. For example, Jim acts like what we know as *the strong silent type.* Is that why he is fiercely selective with his words? Tentative with weighty actions? Guarded about his life? Well, as quiet and restrained as he is, there is more than one way to interpret his personal style and cautious choices. The ending will blow you away, and that’s all I will say about that.
The author effortlessly crafts his tale, and he never intrudes on the action. Tóibín’s cast run the show—they fluently forward the plot with palpable intimacy. And enigma. For all their transparency, the reader won’t easily pierce the inexorable. The author steps out and lets them at it.
Eilis—the entire cast-- continue to carry on in my life. I can’t let them go, they are flawed, unforgettable, human. Eilis especially is inscribed in my personal atlas of eternal literary characters. In the space where truth-in-fiction exists, Eilis Lacey will endure. The story’s spry, subtle, and scintillating style was brilliant. I want another sequel and I rarely say that!
Addendum: Norah Webster makes a cameo appearance. Background color basically. But it made me think about the Lucy Barton/Olive Kitteridge-verse. Tóibín has well established the Eilis Lacy-verse, and I'm a fan of him continuing to explore these nervy characters in both Enniscorthy and Long Island.
'Long Island' takes place a couple of decades after Eilis last visited Enniscorthy, her hometown in Ireland. She is now married and has two teen-aged children. She lives on a cul-de-sac with her husband's family - brothers, in-laws - always intruding in her life in both subtle and coercive ways. Eilis feels stuck. She left an overbearing mother in Ireland and now finds herself encrypted into her husband's family which makes it very difficult for her to individuate.
One day, totally out of the blue, there is a knock on Eilis's door and she is delivered some life-changing news. It impacts her family in big ways and it also involves her husband and his family. She feels subjugated. The only member of her husband's family who is helpful is Frank, her brother-in-law. He is a successful lawyer and is the only one of his family to live apart from the others. Eilis tries confiding in him but he, too, is enmeshed in the secrets and machinations of her husband's clan. He does, however, give her some money that will help her to go back to Ireland.
Eilis leaves for Ennniscorthy with no finite plan for return; all is open-ended. She stays with her mother who is mean-spirited and critical of Eilis. While in Enniscorthy, she refuels relationships from her younger years and gets quite involved with the people from her past.
Toibin has a marvelous way with words. I felt I was right there with Eilis, facing the difficult decisions she had in front of her. This is a novel of love lost and love found, the importance of making the right decisions and the fallback from the past that lands in the future. There is grief, hope, love, friendship and family in this novel. Toibin keeps it lively and there are some major surprises in store for Eilis and the town of Enniscorthy. I love Irish literature and Mr. Toibin is one of the reasons why.
However keeping track of the all the conversations and personalities in Ireland was a bit long winded and confusing. Perhaps it could have been cut shorter.
I wished for a different ending but a thoughtful reader can imagine the character’s karma and road blocks ahead. I hope there is a series 3 in the Eilis Lacey books. I highly recommend this book.
Top reviews from other countries
My Irish mother and her sisters, who emigrated to Montreal and New York, after WWII often revisited their small hometown in Southern Ireland, where their memories lived on with their older surviving sister and remaining relatives. When their sister passed away, my Irish- American aunt and uncle inherited the home, including memories and secrets, past. Long Island, the novel, made me ponder could my aunts and mother, have had similar secrets and stories they took to their graves. A must read for Irish -Canadian and Irish-American baby-boomers.
I find the dialogues vivid, the weaving of present/past and the interplay between America and Ireland effective. To’ibi’n’ s rendering of surroundings is most evocative bringing in smells, atmosphere, habits or tradition with the minimum of description.
What really got me is the subtlety of glances, phrases and questions left unsaid, or incomplete; the holding back of the two main romantic characters out of habit or out of their attitude not to prioritise desire leads to an end that does not surprise me. It is consistent, I think, with hints throughout the novel that the writer drops about things left unsaid, hanging in the air.
The gaps left may be filled by the unshakeable will of other characters who do not read nuances, but take action to realise the future they want for themselves.
Great read!
A mature Eilis looking back at her past and questioning her future twenty years on.
But if you didn't read "Brooklyn", you may not be so enthusiastic. The story is told in the journalistic style characteristic of Colm Toibin who only once deviates from his principle of neutrality concerning the character of Eilis in part 6. The statement "The thought of herself as suddenly altruistic and concerned only with the welfare of others [...] made her smile" clears up all doubts about who Eilis really is. But that, we can accept and even enjoy.
What we could regret however is that the author relies on a few cheap plot tricks and some convenient coincidences to set things in motion. Besides, Colm Toibin once again avoids giving a conclusive resolution to the story. That could mean a sequel to the sequel, and that is good news, ... and that will be a real literary challenge. Looking forward to it!