I’ve only read one other Colm Tóibín book, The Magician, which I also read for The BookTube Prize in 2022. I admired the writing style, even if the story was a little dense for my liking. This one is a sequel to one of Tóibín’s most famous books, Brooklyn. I’ve not read Brooklyn, so I went into this book without knowing anything about its characters or backstory. But I was pleased that, while having read the prequel might add depth and context to this book, it wasn’t necessary in order to understand this one.
The story begins in Long Island, with Eilis, an Irishwoman who lives with her Italian-American husband in close proximity to his large family. One day Eilis answers the door to find a man standing there who accuses her husband of being the father to his wife’s unborn child. He promises to leave the child on Eilis’s doorstep as soon as it’s born because he’s not going to raise another man’s child. This news upends Eilis’s whole world. She hadn’t suspected that her husband was unfaithful, let alone being the father to another woman’s child. She’s left trying to figure out how to deal with this news – who to tell, what to do if the man carries out his threat, what to do about her marriage, and how to navigate the inevitable shock and judgment from those around them. Not to mention the impact this new development will have on her own two children. It’s a lot to deal with.
While this is unfolding, we skip back to Ireland, to the town in which Eilis grew up. We meet her mother, but also some of the people Eilis knew – Jim, a man she left abruptly and whose heart she broke, and Nancy, a childhood friend of hers. Nancy is a widow who is running a chip shop that she lives above with her family. Jim runs a pub nearby, and is still unmarried. The two, however, have embarked on a secret relationship that is becoming more serious.
Eilis hasn’t been back to Ireland in decades at this point, and has a rocky history with her own mother. She decides that now would be a good time to visit her ma, and get some space from her husband so she can figure out what she’s going to do. Her children decide they’d like to go with her, and make plans to join her there later in the summer. But her return to Ireland has a huge impact on the people she left behind, and new drama unfolds on her side of the Atlantic while her husband deals with his back in America.
As I’d expect from Tóibín, the writing in this book is evocative. It wasn’t hard for me to feel invested in the outcome of the story, and while I cared about the characters, there are unlikable characteristics to all of them – they’re weak-willed, overly concerned with the opinions of others, overbearing, self-absorbed and shrewd. So while I felt like I cared what happened, it was hard to decide which character I was rooting for by the end of the book. I will say that I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a third instalment to this series, because the ending was quite abrupt and didn’t leave me feeling like I was fully satisfied. I can guess at the outcome, but it wasn’t fully spelled out, and I did wish there had been a little more finality. I’m also curious what happened in Brooklyn, because while this book stands alone, there is definitely a lot of history playing out in it as well.
What did you guys think of this book? Have you read Brooklyn, and if so, did you find that this book benefited from having read it?
From the beloved, critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author comes a spectacularly moving and intense novel of secrecy, misunderstanding, and love, the story of Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic heroine of Brooklyn, Tóibín’s most popular work, twenty years later.
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 that lives and works, eats and plays together. It is the spring of 1976 and Eilis, now in her forties with two teenage children, has no one to rely on in this still-new country. 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 his job and Eilis is in her home office doing her accounting, an Irishman comes to the door asking for her 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.
Long Island is about longings unfulfilled, even unrecognized. The silences in Eilis’ life are thunderous and dangerous, and there’s no one more deft than Tóibín at giving them language. This is a gorgeous story of a woman alone in a marriage and the deepest bonds she rekindles on her return to the place and people she left behind, to ways of living and loving she thought she’d lost. – Goodreads
Book Title: Long Island
Author: Colm Tóibín
Series: Yes – Eilis Lacey #2
Edition: Audiobook (Libby)
Published By: Scribner
Released: May 7, 2024
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Family, Relationships, Ireland
Pages: 294
Date Read: April 27, 2025
Rating: 7/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.73/5 (61,577 ratings)
BookTube Prize Quarterfinals Judging 2025 Rank: 4/6