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Brooklyn

Colm Tóibín

2009251 pagesabout 4–6 hours
2009
first published
  • 2009Center Point Pub. · ENGISBN 9781602855304
  • 2009Viking · 251 pages · ENGISBN 9780670918126
  • 2009Scribner · 262 pages · ENGISBN 9781439138311
  • 2010Penguin Books · 256 pagesISBN 9780141041742
  • 2010Windsor/Paragon · 313 pages · ENGISBN 9781408460320
  • 2015262 pages · ENGISBN 9781501106477
  • 2016Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH & Co.ISBN 9783423086493
  • 2010Scribner · 262 pagesISBN 9781439148952

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.

How it feels

Emotional toneUnflinching

How it reads

Plot intensityCharacter driven
ComplexityLayered

Worth knowing

Romance levelCentral

When and where

ThemesLoveClass
How do you feel?