Set in the 1970s, two decades after making her debut in Colm Toibins acclaimed “Brooklyn” “Long Island “ brings back Eilis Lacey in a sequel that is nothing less than a compelling read. Eilis is married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber of Italian descent. The couple lives in Lindenhurst, Long Island, a south shore suburb of New York. Surrounded by Tony’s large family who all have homes close by, and do almost everything together, it is difficult for Eilis to maintain privacy or autonomy. She hasn’t returned to Ireland in twenty years and her own Irish family has never met her two teenage children.

When a neighbor rings her bell one day to give her shocking news about her husband, Eilis is forced to confront the unimaginable and locks horns with a united and determined Fiorello family. In a effort to figure out what direction her life must take, Eilis flies to her small hometown in Ireland to help celebrate her mothers upcoming 80th birthday. It is there that circumstances force her to face her former boyfriend, still unmarried, whom she abandoned without explanation so many years earlier. Toibin deftly creates tension and drama both emotional and physical in the triangles love at the heart of this story.

Character development is this author’s forte. Each person in this novel lacks forthright honesty. Secrets abound . Each must guess, even when a situation is urgent, what the other is thinking or doing. Hidden agendas lurk everywhere. This is a story seeped in deception, secrecy, poor communication and self interest. Yet the characters are real and likable for the most part. It takes an author who is very adept in his craft to make that happen.

From beginning to end this is a five star read. I hope that a third installment of Eilis Lacey’s life is in the works, making this a trilogy. Many thanks to NetGalley and Edelweiss for this advance reader copy in exchange for my review. Publication date is just a week away, May 7, 2024. Reserve your copy now!

Published by Scribner on May 7, 2024

I’m not always a fan of domestic drama, but I’m a huge fan of Colm Tóibín. He writes about couples in crisis with honesty rather than melodrama. Long Island is a sequel to Brooklyn, a continuation of that story of relationship uncertainty in the context of cultural clashes.

Readers of Brooklyn (or viewers of the movie) will recall that Eilis Lacey emigrated from Ireland to America, found a job, endured homesickness, met and married a young Italian man named Tony who was working as a plumber, returned to Ireland to attend her sister’s funeral, and found herself torn between remaining in Ireland (where both familiarity and a young Irishman named Jim Farrell appealed to her) and returning to her husband in Brooklyn. She decides in favor of her marriage, prompted in part by local gossip that makes it impossible to pretend she is single.

Twenty years later, Jim owns a pub in Enniscorthy. He is having a clandestine dalliance with Nancy Sheridan, a widow who owns a nearby chip shop. He has finally worked his way around to proposing, more or less, when Eilis comes back to visit her mother. Notwithstanding his relationship with Nancy, Jim cannot help revisiting the sense of loss he felt when Eilis left for America twenty years earlier.

During those twenty years, Tony and Eilis accomplished Tony’s dream of moving to Long Island. They built a home that was surrounded by the homes of Tony’s siblings and parents. Tony and Eilis had two kids and apparently had a steady marriage until it was rocked by news that Tony made a customer pregnant while fixing her leaking pipes. The customer’s husband wants nothing to do with Tony’s baby and threatens to leave it on Eilis’ doorstep after it is born. Eilis also wants nothing to do with the baby. She refuses to raise it and refuses to go along with Tony’s mother’s plan to raise the child.

After giving Tony an ultimatum, Eilis returns to Ireland to visit her aging mother, who has become no less intolerable during Eilis’ absence. She plans to have her children join her for her mother’s birthday celebration.

Eilis will, of course, encounter Jim. The novel’s drama comes from the choices Eilis must make — return to America and Tony, stay in Ireland with Jim, or return to America with Jim. Jim hasn’t stopped thinking about Eilis since she returned to America, but would he abandon his marriage plans with Nancy to be with Eilis? Would Eilis leave her family in America to be with Jim? The novel builds tension as it seems inevitable that Eilis and/or Nancy will learn that Jim has not been honest with either of them.

This sounds like a soap opera plot, and maybe it is, but Long Island is a character-driven novel that takes a deep dive into personalities that have been shaped by culture and family. Tóibín addresses the restrained emotional turmoil of his characters without resorting to contrivances.

The novel explores the relationship histories of Jim and Nancy as well as their relationship with each other. In a small town where everyone knows everything about everyone else, they have been surprisingly successful at keeping their late-night visits a secret. Yet secrets will out. Jim doesn’t want Nancy to know that she is his backup plan if he can’t convince Eilis to leave Tony. Nor does he want Eilis to know that he is sleeping with Nancy. In such a small community, is there any hope that Jim’s secrets will not be discovered?

Jim’s secrecy is motivated in part by the knowledge that Nancy will be subject to gossip if it becomes known that he left her for Eilis. The destructive nature of gossip and the impossibility of keeping secrets in a small Irish village was an important theme in Brooklyn that Tóibín reprises in the sequel.

Tóibín also illustrates how people in relationships attempt to manipulate each other. Nancy, for example, wants to sell the chip shop and become a homemaker after she marries Jim, but she schemes to influence Jim with subtle suggestions until he believes the idea is his own. At the same time, characters are afraid to say what they are thinking, perhaps for fear of another person’s reaction, perhaps because they fear the consequences of speaking their desires into reality. The story ends with a dramatic act of manipulation that different readers might judge in different ways.

The novel’s other key relationship is Eilis’ with her mother. For twenty years, her mother never acknowledged the pictures that Eilis sent of her children. When she arrives in Ireland, her mother doesn’t want to hear anything about her life in America. Yet Eilis’ mother has always nurtured a hidden pride in the grandchildren she never met, even if she has bottled up her emotions and refuses to share them with her daughter. After Eilis’ mother meets her grandchildren, she believes it is her right to turn her daughter’s life upside down.

My first takeaway from Long Island in conjunction with Brooklyn is that every choice we make gives birth to a potential regret about the choice we didn’t make. Or if not regret, at least curiosity about the path life might have taken if we had chosen differently.

My second takeaway is that no matter how we try to make choices that shape our lives, other people make their own choices that alter the course we have planned. We may or may not have the courage or strength to resist those choices. The choices made by others may take on an irresistible force. The inability to take complete control of our destiny might turn out to be a surprising joy or a dreadful peril, but either way, Long Island makes clear that it is a reality of life. As always, Tóibín’s powerful illustration of great truths makes Long Island a captivating novel.

RECOMMENDED

Long Island is a sequel to Colm Toibin's beloved Brooklyn and having been a fan of that novel, I was eager for the follow up. I would recommend that readers either read or re-read Brooklyn before going into this book. You would get a lot more out of Eilis' story in Long Island if you remember her more vividly of how she used to be as a young woman just starting out. In many ways, middle aged Eilis has retained a lot of the qualities that made her so endearing as a young woman. But you also see all the subtle ways her view of the world and how she conducts herself has changed now that she is a mother of two and married. Toibin's prose and characterizations are as beautiful as ever. Eilis was never a perfect person and sometimes she made questionable decisions, both in her 20s and now. But she always felt human and complex and it was a pleasure to be reunited with her again.

I have loved Brooklyn since I bought it based off the pretty cover at the Borders “going out of business” sale in high school. Unfortunately, this sequel let me down. Eilis would always deal with disappointment in some form in her marriage to Tony. This much of Long Island’s story is very believable based on Brooklyn. However, Long Island lacked the characterization of the grown-up Eilis and Tony to help me understand why they make the decisions they do as adults and parents. Toibin’s writing is always beautiful, but I had a hard time understanding his characters’ motivations in this novel, making them seem callous and unfeeling, a disappointing realization about characters you love.

Twenty years ago Eilis left Ireland and Jim Farrell behind to return to her Italian-American husband Tony. Nancy, her close friend, stayed home and married George. Eilis now lives in Lindenhurst with her children, Tony, and his entire family. She leads a rather tame life until she is told her husband has fathered a child with one of his clients. The husband of the pregnant woman has threatened to leave the baby on the doorstep. Getting no support from her in-laws when she declares she will not raise this child, she decides to return home to celebrate her mother’s eightieth birthday. In Ireland Nancy has become a widow, is running a chips shop, and has become the lover of Jim Farrell. The three reunite in Enniscorthy for the summer where every relationship is talked about and there are few secrets among the townspeople. Heartbreaks from the past never truly die. Eilis, disillusioned by marriage, re-ignites her passion for Jim while Nancy prepares for her marriage to the very same man. Colm Toibin’s characters are so believable and their dialogue so real that I feel I know them. This is my second time following their lives; I can’t help but wonder will there be a third in the future?

Eilis returns to Ireland after being gone for 20 years. Her marriage is in trouble and her children are almost grown. It's been years since I read Brooklyn so I did not realize this was a sequel until I was finished reading it. I probably would have appreciated the book more if I knew that while I was reading it because I didn't feel like Eilis was fully developed as a character - but now I understand why.

Once I saw that Colm Toibin had written a sequel to “Brooklyn,” it immediately became my most anticipated book of 2024. Sometimes sequels are a let down, but I may have loved “Long Island” even more than its predecessor. I’ll have a better idea once I reread it. On my initial read, I kept thinking I’ll stop reading after this chapter but I kept on reading until I finished the book in one sitting. The book follows a middle age Eilis. She’s been married to Italian-American Tony now for more than 20 years and they live with their two teenagers in a cluster of houses by two of Tony’s brothers and his parents. She hasn’t been back to her native Ireland since the events of the first book, but a bombshell bit of news leads to a journey back home. While “Brooklyn” dealt with overcoming homesickness and building your future in a new home, “Long Island” is about coming to terms with your life not working out as you envisioned, and making decisions on how to move forward despite how difficult it can be to make changes.. Thanks to NetGalley for the Arc.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher Scribner for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review of this title. We have been waiting for this book for years. The first novel Brooklyn made us fall in love with the young couple, Eilis and Tony. Young lovers from 2 different worlds unite and build a family. What follows is this novel Long Island some 20 years later. While I strongly suggest that Brooklyn be read first Toibin does weave the story in a straightforward manner and simple way reviewing the necessary details of the earlier story.

The primary focus remains on Eilis and her life after marrying into Tony’s large Italian family. She remains true to her strengths as a dedicated working wife and mother. Toibin presents her with devastating news when she answers her door to a man who claims that his wife is pregnant with Tony’s child. What results is a story of love and regret and thoughts of the road not taken. Toibin presents his characters masterfully and with great passion yet simple enough that they never leave your heart. The reaction of the reader is to embrace each of them as they discover their thoughts and actions. The storytelling is mesmerizing and swept me up into Eilis’s worlds in New York and Ireland. What will she choose to do and what of the consequences of both roads.
I would have given it 5 stars had it not been for the abrupt ending which hopefully leads to book 3. Until then my thoughts will turn to these characters often- the true mark of a story reflecting real life. Thank you Mr. Toibin!

Long Island By Colm Toibin is the follow up the smash hit novel Brooklyn. It picks up over twenty years later, with Eilis Fiorello (née Lacey) in her Long Island home, in a culdesac surrounded by the family of her husband Tony. Despite her long marriage Eilis finds herself still an outsider as Tony’s family always being judged for being Irish and not Italian. But one day, her world is turned upside down by a sudden visitor, and suddenly, Eilis finds herself longing for home. And so she takes her self back to Ireland for the first time since her dramatic exit two decades prior. Yet home, while still the same in many ways, is not the same home she knew. She finds familiar faces who are all in different circumstances, and struggles to make a choice about her future.

This is worthy follow up to Brooklyn, yet I did struggle a bit to find too much sympathy for Eilis in some of her actions. Yet, in her situation, who knows how one would truly feel?

If you loved the first novel, definitely pick up this book. Toibin’s prose is smooth and will draw you in.

I would like to thank Scribner and NetGalley for the E-ARC!

Rather devastating. Also a little maddening. This is a completely immersive and suspenseful tale of whether reignited old flames can sort out a future together. Both are insular, bad at being open or even acknowledging their feelings to themselves. Of course it will end badly, and yet the reader’s hopes remain high, even to the non-declarative final page. Such internalized anguish. Tóibín is a wonderfully fluid storyteller and his portrait of small town Irish life, and stifling Italian American life, are both rich and appalling.
It all looks easy, but it surely isn’t., Good stuff.

A sequel to Brooklyn, it follows Eilis twenty years later, still married to Tony and with two children. A scandal rocks their marriage and Eilis decides to return to Ireland for her mothers birthday. Once back in Ireland, the original cast of characters comes back together. Each individual is wrestling with choices to be made. Secrets are revealed as only happens in a small town with consequences for all. Well done if a little lengthy.

This is the long-awaited sequel to Brooklyn, a novel I adored. It is another masterpiece by Colm Toibin. The story continues twenty years later, Eilis and Tony are married and have a son and daughter. They live in Long Island on the compound Tony had promised Eilis he and his brothers would build the book, Brooklyn. Eilis has struggled a bit, overwhelmed by Tony's large Italian family and missing her homeland but things get much worse when she finds out that Tony has had an affair with a customer and the baby will be born in a few months. The woman's husband tells Eilis that the baby will be given to Tony, but he will not keep it in his house. The story is about how Eilis responds to this situation. Part of her solution is to return, finally, to Ireland for her mother's 80th birthday. After spending time there, her son and daughter join her. Of course, she runs into Jim Farrell who has remained in the same town. This is a magnificent family drama and the characters are richly described. It is a story about family and love and missed chances and regrets. I loved every minute of it! Thank you, NetGalley, for the advanced copy. I am crossing my fingers for the next book in this series -- it can't come soon enough.

Been a long time since I read Brooklyn but it was fun to revisit the family. I actually liked this one better. Felt characters were more developed. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher!

I absolutely do not recommend this book due to its style and ending. I do admit that I watched Brooklyn over reading it, but I still wanted to love the sequel. I was not excited about the premise of this book, but excited to read what happened along the way. Then there was the switch from Ellis POV to multiple POV and I absolutely hated it. I skipped from Part 3 to Part 7 because I would not be able to handle that many POV switches. I did not miss much in the way of things. But then the ending came and I wanted to throw my phone across the room, because that was not an ending.

This was a good continuation of Brooklyn/Eilis Lacey's story! I really enjoyed it and could not put it down once I started reading it because I just had to know what Eilis was thinking and would decide about Tony and Jim. The sentence structure is fairly simple throughout - descriptions are concise, so a lot is left to the reader's imagination. Sometimes that was frustrating because I would have preferred a little more to the story, but I CANNOT wait for the next installment in the series!!!

A sweeping tale with Toibin's signature style. A sequel to Brooklyn set 20 year later, Ellis Lacey finds that her husband has fathered another woman's child and decides to return to her Irish roots for her mother's birthday so as not to become responsible for raising the baby. Old friendships and loves resurface as she struggles with what to do about her marriage. Beautifully told.

Toibin's sequel to Brooklyn follows Eilis Lacey--twenty years later [1976]--her life on Long Island--and her return to Ireland.

Eilis is [still] married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber, from a close-knit Italian family [four brothers living in neighboring houses with their families on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst--and his parents]; their son and daughter are teenagers, Eilis is an accountant. One day, she answers the door to an [Irish]man who tells her that his wife is pregnant with Tony's child and when the baby is born, it will be left on Eilis's doorstep. She refuses to bring the child into her home--or stay for the birth. There is much discussion on the issue among some family members [though she had presumed there would not be such talk]. Eilis decides to return to Ireland for her mother's 80th birthday and skip the birth of the illegitimate child and the delivery to her house, Eventually her two children join her--meeting their maternal grandmother for the first time.

This was an easy, engrossing read. I couldn't wait to see how it unwound. The prose is spare--simple and lovely. Sad with some uh oh moments. Lots of internal dialog with Eilis, her almost husband Jim Farrell [read Brooklyn] who runs a successful pub, and Nancy Sheridan--her former best friend, now widowed and running a chip shop--and in this book Jim's lover. No spoiler from me.

Eilis's mother is set in her old ways and doesn't even have a refrigerator or washing machine--this makes for some humor in her confrontations with her daughter. There are also characters/employees in Jim's bar that add some depth to the story as well as some sidelines around Nancy's family and her daugther's upcoming wedding. Just a good yarn.

Not sure how I wanted it to end but I feel sure there is [and should be] another book coming.

Read.

4.5 but can't quite pull the trigger on 5 stars,

Stories that end but don’t reach a conclusion can be frustrating but much truer to real life. In this worthy sequel to BROOKLYN, the heroine returns to Ireland but finds it hard to be home again. This is a low-key character study with great atmosphere and a bit of angst as the novel nears the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner/Simon & Schuster for the ARC to read and review.

This is the 2nd book in the Eilis Lacey series. I didn’t know that when I was approved for this book, so I had to go back and read it. I guess I didn’t have to, but I did. The first book, Brooklyn (also a movie) is fabulous. I had been in a bit of a reading rut, and this was a great switch up as historical fiction and non fiction is what started my reading journey to begin with.
The characters in this story are written so well that they come alive and off the pages and you feel like you are one of them – maybe a nosey neighbor? Maybe a cousin? Either way, the reader is immersed and involved! This is a story that covers so many emotions – love, lies, memories, regrets, complicated relationships and longings. A perfect mix or Irish and American lifestyles – kudos to Colbin. I will be following this author from now on.

Eilis Lacey, wife, mother, and bookkeeper, is having a normal day in her house on Long Island. She lives with her family on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, in one of four houses that her husband's family owns, dad and mom in one and his brothers and their wives in the others. A man with an Irish accent comes to her door and tells her that her husband, Tony, a plumber, got his wife pregnant, and when the baby comes, he's giving it to Tony. She also finds out that the whole family knows this and is on board with raising the baby. She absolutely isn't and decides to go back to Ireland for her mother's 80th birthday to give her time to figure the whole thing out. The plan is for her to go a few weeks ahead, followed by her son and daughter before the party. Meanwhile, her best friend Nancy, now a widow, has been seeing Jim Farrell who never married after Eilis left Ireland 20 years ago. They have a secret "understanding" that they would marry one day. When Eilis comes back, she has a prickly reunion with her mother and the tight town of Enniscorthy, where everyone has known everyone's business since they were born. Nonetheless, Eilis manages to start an affair with Jim, which Nancy finds out about and takes drastic measures. How will Eilis straighten her life out this time?
I read Long Island before I read Brooklyn-that was a mistake. A brief synopsis of Brooklyn for those who haven't read the book or watched the movie: Eilis Lacey lives with her mother and sister Rose in Enniscorthy, County Wexford. Rose, a dynamic young businesswoman has decided not to marry, but instead, takes care of her mother. Eilis can't get a job, and her mother and the parish decide that she'll have a better life in New York. A priest in Brooklyn finds her a job, lodging, and enrolls her in a two-year business course at Brooklyn College . She meets a young Italian plumber named Tony at an Irish parish dance. They date and he is very respectful toward her as the relationship progresses. When Rose dies, she returns to Ireland to visit her grave, but not before she and Tony secretly marry. She tells no one in Ireland of her marriage, leaving the town people with the idea that she has come back to stay. .
Eilis is an interesting subject. She seems to have no will of her own, and just meanders through life-that's why she gets into these conflicts. Toibin basically describes his characters and tells what they are doing almost in a journalistic manner and the reader has to make decisions about the why the characters behave as they do. The book brings up very discussable themes; wouldn't it be nice to live two simultaneous but completly different lives? Can you go home again? If you do return, will you understand that life isn't static and you must deal with change?
After reading the first two novels, I see that the publishers are referring to these books now as the Eilis Lacey series and Long Island certainly leaves the reader wondering when the next book will emerge and how Eilis resolves her dilemmas-I hope we don't have too long to wait.