Long Island, Colm Toibin
Long Island, Colm Toibin
9 Rating(s)
List: $25.99 | Sale: $17.15
Club Sale: $12.99

Long Island

Bestseller

Author: Colm Toibin

Narrator: Jessie Buckley

Unabridged: 9 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/07/2024


Synopsis

* OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK * INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *
* NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2024 BY TIME MAGAZINE, THE NEW YORKER, WASHINGTON POST, VULTURE, GLAMOUR, FRESH AIR, NPR, THE GUARDIAN, THE ECONOMIST, THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, THE TIMES (London), THE IRISH TIMES, THE NEW STATESMAN, THE INDEPENDENT, THE OBSERVER, and more *

“Stunning.” —People * “Dazzling yet devastating...Tóibín is simply one of the world’s best living literary writers.” —The Boston Globe * “Momentous and hugely affecting.” —The Wall Street Journal *

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).

About Colm Toibin

Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island, an Oprah’s Book Club Pick; 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; 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 was named the 2022–2024 Laureate for Irish Fiction by the Arts Council of Ireland. He was shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize. He was also awarded the Bodley Medal, the Würth Prize for European Literature, and the Prix Femina spécial for his body of work. 


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kim on May 09, 2024

What a disappointment. The Kirkus starred review describes, "a dramatic denouement," with "a plot twist worthy of Edith Wharton." To me it felt like the last page of the book must be missing, or that the author, unsure how the end the book simply decided not to.......more

Goodreads review by Angela M on May 16, 2024

I was as drawn to Eilis Lacey Fiorello as I was in Brooklyn when I first met her, even more so, perhaps. I found her more mature and stronger. I found it sad, though, that she’s lonely, 20 years after emigrating from Ireland and still not really feeling a part of her husband’s extended Italian famil......more

Goodreads review by emma on December 04, 2024

thank you to colm tóibín for understanding what few do: all the books i like should get sequels. this book is the absolute most i could enjoy any story that refused to go anywhere i wanted it to go, and in fact at any given time was following one nightmarish plot point with another unique hellscape o......more

Goodreads review by Taufiq on March 02, 2025

I watched the movie adaptation of Brooklyn first, then read the book, and immediately followed it with Long Island. 15 years have elapsed, and Toibin’s writing has undeniably matured. The narrative's pacing is more concise. While Brooklyn primarily employs a singular perspective, Long Island shifts b......more

Goodreads review by Karen on May 16, 2024

Loved it! I had not read Brooklyn, but last week I watched the movie and met Eilis, played by Saoirse Ronan.. it was a beautiful movie! So.. at the end of Brooklyn, Eilis went back to Tony the Italian man she had married right before she went back to Ireland for a short time to see family. When she ha......more


Quotes

"Jessie Buckley’s performance of these characters is so rich that listeners need not worry if they’re unfamiliar with BROOKLYN, the first novel in which they appear...One of Buckley's narrating gifts is her ability to project Lacey’s silences. She allows intimate conversations to unfold with quiet immediacy. The result is a performance that fits perfectly the humanity of Tóibín's cast. It is so winning and full of depth that the most evocative passages stand alone as their own moments. Listeners can’t help but be drawn close."