Strong character development which is to be expected of Tobin. Although the book is not labeled as a mystery it was a mystery to me. One keeps trying to guess how the book will end. Which also demonstrates how involved I became with the characters. Don't want to say anything more and be a spolier.
Highly recommended.

Colm Tóibín is a master and I can’t wait to dive into his backlist. Long Island picks up where Brooklyn left off. We last saw Eilis Lacey leave Ireland and a man she was to marry — to go back to the United States. Eilis was already married to Tony, an Italian man who met her at an Irish dance hall and drew her into his life with his extended family.

In Long Island, Eilis and Tony have two teenaged children and live in Long Island with Tony’s extended family close by. At the very beginning of the book an Irish man comes to Eilis’ front door and drops a bomb on her. Tony is the father of a baby that this man’s wife is about to have. The man tells her he will be leaving the baby on her doorstep. Eilis, learning about Tony’s infidelity for the first time, refuses to allow the baby in her home or in the home of her extended family.

She heads back to Ireland for the first time in 20 years in the month or two before the baby is to be born.

The book traces Eilis’ life after she makes this decision concerning the baby her husband fathered. You will meet a lot of the characters that you grew to know in Brooklyn, with some cameos from Nora Webster (also on my TBR).

4.25 stars

I liked this book so much more than Brooklyn. So. Much. More. I had been putting off reading this because Brooklyn had been such a dud for me; I am so glad that I finally dove in and that it was way better than I had expected [such surprises are always welcome].

This would have been a five-star read for me but for two things; 1. the story gets bogged down a bit in the middle [with what I saw as unnecessary mundane things that didn't really add to the story - at least for me] and I got a bit restless with it and may or may not have tuned out a bit [and then found myself going back to relisten because I realized I had zoned out; the bestie read this before me and I am just never sure when there is going to be a quiz you know? LOL ;-) ] and 2. THAT. ENDING. W. T. H.?????? UGH!!!!! I am really unimpressed with that.

While I was singularly unimpressed with both Jim and Eilis's behavior [I cannot pretend I advocate that behavior ever being okay], I DID enjoy the growth we see in Eilis from the end of Brooklyn to now. How she stands up to Tony and her in-laws in the best way she knew how [I have lived that life and I shed many many tears reading those parts; while it seems that it doesn't make a difference, it does to Eilis because she is finally standing up for herself and what she wants and realizes just how awful they all have been to her for years] and refused to back down, even as she knew what the outcome would be regardless.

I am glad I finally read this - I do really enjoy this author and I should have just trusted in his writing, regardless of how I felt about Brooklyn.

Thank you to NetGalley, Colm Toibin, and Scribner for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Brooklyn is one of my all time favorite books. It gave me such a 'behind the scenes' look at my own Nana's journey which paralleled the story in many ways. I was excited yet nervous about Long Island, and while I didn't connect with it as I did Brooklyn, I enjoyed returning to these characters again.

I enjoyed returning to these characters but found the dialogue a bit stilted throughout. This seems like it must be part of a planned trilogy, so I hope for more resolution in a later installment.

This is the sequel to Colm Tóibín’s 2009 novel, Brooklyn. I have never read Brooklyn, but watched and fell in love with the HBO adaptation.

Long Island takes place about 20 years after Brooklyn. Although the publisher’s blurb gives the general premise, I don’t want to give it away to anyone who hasn’t read Brooklyn yet.
Overall, Long Island has a very different tone than Brooklyn. Whereas Brooklyn felt young and full of promise, Long Island is rather jaded and (dare I say?) middle-aged.

This doesn’t mean that Long Island isn’t a good read— I really enjoyed it and cannot wait for my book bestie to hurry up and finish so we can discuss.

a new book for irish fiction fans! as someone who loves the movie, i preferred the tony there lol. but a good book!

Such a disappointment. I went back and re-read my review of Brooklyn, and I'm still struggling to relate to or even like Eilis. Which creates a fairly large issue with the entire book. She's not sympathetic or likable - even given the circumstances of her marriage and life. I just ended up not caring what happened to her or those around her. The ending was brutal - it wasn't even an ending, but more of a cessation of writing. It resolved absolutely nothing in the story, but now I see that the book is tagged as "Eilis Lacey #2" so I assume that there will be a #3. Since I really didn't like this book, it bothers me that I'll need to read another one if I want to find out what happens. Part of me needs the closure, but another part of me really doesn't want to waste any more time with these characters.

A beautiful sequel to his book "Brooklyn" (also made into a movie) that continues the story of the main characters but flash forward to decades later. Because the author gives us background information as we go along, one could definitely read this book without having read the first one (although I also highly recommend that one too!). The characters are well fleshed out here and I love the many conversations where things are said or most importantly not said. It captures well the awkwardness of discourse between people (lovers, family, friends). I could not put the book down because I wanted to know how it would end -- no spoilers from me though! A highly satisfying, , beautifully written book. I highly recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

This is the second book in (what I hope will be) a trilogy, but it can be read without knowing anything about the first book. Eilis, an Irish woman living with her family on Long Island, discovers her husband has betrayed her, and she takes that opportunity to go back to Ireland for the first time in years to celebrate her mother's 80th birthday. There, she reconnects with her former love, and the rest of the story is about the various relationships in her life. I liked how the author set up the story - different parts told from each character's point of view - because it gave me a chance to catch up on everyone's lives. I wasn't as fond of the ending - it was an ambiguous way to end the story, and it's obvious there's a third book on the way. In the meantime, I'm going to read Toibin's first book about Eilis.Thank-you to NetGalley, Scribner, and Mr. Toibin for the ARC of this title.

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

I love Colm Tóibín’s novels. I recently read Brooklyn in preparation for his newest release, Long Island. The new book continues the story of Eilis Lacey, an Irish immigrant to New York, who married an Italian plumber, Tony Fiorello, and thus became part of a large Italian-American family. Now the mother of two teenagers, she has adapted to a life in Long Island, but she has never quite fit in. She hasn’t been back to Ireland in over 20 years, and feels disconnected from both her old family and her new.

The vague dissatisfaction she feels with her life worsens to a crisis when a strange man shows up at her door. He claims his wife is pregnant with Tony’s baby. And when the baby is born, he intends to leave it on the Fiorello doorstep because he doesn’t want it in his house. Eilis doesn’t want it in her house either. Although she makes her wishes clear, the Fiorellos make plans behind her back to take the baby in.

While Eilis’ position may seem harsh, the utter disregard for her feelings highlights her isolation. When she decides to go back to Ireland for her mother’s 80th birthday, it is clear to Tony and everyone else that she might not return.

As Eilis is dealing with this, the novel turns to two of the people she left behind in Ireland. Her one-time best friend Nancy, who is now a widow, and Jim Farrell. Jim owns and runs a tavern. Twenty-years ago, he and Eilis had a summer romance (unconsummated), back when Eilis was newly married to Tony. One can imagine Eilis and Jim picking up where they left off, except for one complication. Jim and Nancy are now involved, and secretly engaged.

Tóibín is able to crawl inside these characters’ heads, making them all tragically sympathetic to start. (At least the three protagonists. It’s difficult to feel sympathy for Tony.) It is impossible to resolve the triangle without a great deal of heartache. I read along, hurting for the characters, unable to guess how it was going to work out, completely engrossed.

While I think Long Island is the better book, I recommend reading Brooklyn first. It’s also superb and will set the stage for the emotionally compelling sequel.

I’m so grateful to my friend for introducing me to both Brooklyn and Long Island. Long Island continues the story of Eilis, her life in New York and her return home to Ireland. I love books that explore themes of home and belonging and this book does it beautifully. Despite being in the US for over twenty years, Eilis has no one to turn to when confronted with her husband’s betrayal. She returns to Ireland to face more complicated relationships she left behind. A book of second chances, I loved this quiet story and hope we get more about Eilis in the future.

I did not read Brooklyn, so my review might be missing that context. This was a very easy read in a syntactic sense—the dialogue and descriptions were simple to follow. However, I had a hard time understanding the characters' motivations from an ethical point of view. Eilis is understandably upset at her husband for his selfish actions and denial, so she escapes to an Ireland that she hasn't seen for decades. Her old flame dances around trying to win her back while keeping his fiancé on the back burner and in the dark. Somehow, Eilis suspects absolutely nothing despite being trapped in her tiny seaside town with no one but her cranky, gossiping mother to keep her company. I just could not sympathize with Jim or Eilis' actions. Was it supposed to be a fanciful romance for old times' sake, or was the reader supposed to be convinced of its reality? How could Nancy have such little self-respect in the aftermath? It all struck me as somewhat bland and confusing.

Thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for the ebook. This is a lovely sequel to Brooklyn. Eilis is now married in Long Island with two kids and living surrounded by her husband’s Italian family. Her husband is expecting a child through an affair and wants to raise the child. This sends Eilis back to Ireland for the first time in twenty years to her family and to an old love.

Colm Tóibín is one of the quietest authors I know. He does a fantastic job book after book with the details of daily life, the near-silent drama of mundanity. For the most part, I’ve loved his novels (there’s a reason my family calls what they consider “deathly slow” works “dad books/movies”), Brooklyn among them. So I was excited for its sequel Long Island, his most recent book. And while I enjoyed large parts of it and remain an admirer of Toiban’s craftsmanship on a sentence level, I have to confess even for me, this one was a little too slow and quiet. A few unavoidable spoilers for Brooklyn to follow.

In that first novel, the main character, Eilis, left her Irish hometown of Enniscorthy, and her hometown love Jim Farrel to emigrate to the States, though she did return after her sister’s death and had a brief affair with him despite married, before going back to her husband in the US. It’s now more than a decade later, Eilis and Tony have two teenage children, and the family lives in a cul-de-sac on Long Island with most of Tony’s big Italian family all owning houses right nearby, convenient for those every-Sunday dinners but more than a little smothering for Eilis. The precipitating event for the novel is the arrival of a strange man at the house one day while Eilis is alone. He tells her Tony has been sleeping with his wife, she’s now pregnant, and he will be dropping the baby off at their house when it is born.

Eilis swears “the baby will not pass the threshold” of her home, and when Tony’s family (particularly his mother) start making plans around her, including having her mother-in-law take the child in right across the street, Eilis decides to go back to Enniscorthy, ostensibly for her mother’s 80th birthday. Her children, Rosella and Larry, will follow short afterward and spend the summer in Ireland, where they’ve never been.

Meanwhile, back in her hometown, Jim Farrell has taken over his father’s pub and though still unmarried, has been in a secret relationship (to avoid the small-town gossip and judgement) with Nancy, Eilis’ old best friend and now a widow for the past five years. Eilis’ arrival, as one might predict, throws all three lives into a bit of a whirl and forces both a reexamination of past choices and a consideration of future ones.

Whereas Brooklyn was told from Eilis’ POV, Long Island gives us three closely held POVs: Eislis, Jim, and Nancy. It’s a good choice for several reasons. One is it allows us to the see the consequences of behaviors and actions on others, particularly in this type of setting where people tend to be uber-restrained rather than particularly expressive. Thus, a lot of those consequences are hidden inside and so we need their POV to see just how much Eilis’ earlier betrayal of Jim has affected him, or how much Nancy still sorrows over her husband despite her surface signs of “moving on” (her relationship with Jim, opening a chip shop, etc.). It also creates a powerful tension as all three are seeking happiness but it’s hard to see how that can happen without someone paying a great cost. Whether or how that resolves I won’t say, but it’s a ticking time bomb that drives much of this very interior plot.

In many ways this is a book full of lovely moments, lovely sentences, deep insights into characters. My only complaint writing-wise is that at times the character speech feels a little stilted (particularly with the teens, who I had a hard time envisioning speaking in the fashion they do) and not individually distinctive at other times. Plot-wise, as noted, the book felt a bit too slow even for this huge fan of quiet, character-driven stories. I was actually surprised to see it was only about 300 pages as it felt longer, which is rarely a good sign.

In the end, I’m happy I read Long Island as I enjoyed it far more than I didn’t, and I admired it nearly all the way through. But if you struggle with slow-moving, interior, character-focused novels with lots of introspection, you may have a hard time with this one. If you like Tóibín, you’ll most likely enjoy this one for the most part, though it may feel more “Tóibín -y” even for fans.
3.5/4

In this late-twentieth century historical fiction novel, readers visit a family on Long Island and explore the dynamics of Irish-American Eilis Lacey and her Italian-American husband Tony Fiorello in 1976. With two teenage children and a large extended family living nearby, their peaceful suburban working-class life turns upside down when a stranger comes to their home and tells Eilis that Tony has fathered a child with this stranger’s wife and they will not raise this child. Eilis must make some difficult decisions and what she ends up deciding will change their lives. With complex characters and challenging decisions in this late twentieth century historical fiction novel, Toibin brings aspects of immigrant life to the forefront of this novel. Eilis is a wonderful protagonist and narrator, and the moral complexity involved in this novel really adds to the readers’ investment in Eilis’s decision-making process. With many other characters in the margins, Eilis’s relationship with them, before and after her decision, are also complex and deeply human, adding to the narrative and character depth in this novel. With so many factors at play, Toibin’s latest novel is immersive, complex, and realistic, driven by his excellently crafted characters in a vivid Long Island setting.

Brooklyn is one of my favorite books and I really enjoyed rereading it before I read Long Island, since it has been a while. It struck me this time just how sad Brooklyn is and then Long Island really continued on with that. This book felt less hopeful to me and was sadder. I didn't enjoy it as much, but really enjoyed getting to get back to these characters and were they were.

I was excited to continue the story of Brooklyn. I loved having the opportunity to leap forward twenty years and visit Eilis and Tony as a married couple with children and living their lives just as they dreamed on Long Island. I struggled with the characters in this volume. People change over time, but Tony and his mother seemed like new characters versus people who simply changed with the years. It seemed that Eilis had not developed or grown and her lack of reaction to events made it difficult to empathize with her.

I read Brooklyn years ago and throughly enjoyed it. Was thrilled to receive an ARC from NetGalley for Long Island.
. This author is the master of tension filled storytelling. It is stressful but it keeps you going. Loved the continuation of Brooklyn. ..loved this book and would recommend it highly! Thanks NetGalley for the Arc.

I read Brooklyn years ago and I honestly don't remember some of the details but it wasn't too hard to get into Long Island. The pace on this book picks up from the very beginning when a stranger man knocks on Eilis' door and lets her know his wife is having a baby and Tony is the father. I admired how Eilis is firm on her decision to not take responsibility for her husband's transgession, even when his family take his side and decides to raise the baby. Wanting to get away from the situation, Eilis decides to go back home to Ireland after twenty years, where she encounters people she has not seen, including an old flame.

Most of Long Island takes place in Eilis' small hometown in Ireland, where everything seems pretty much the same and totally different at the same time. The second half is pure gossip and I couldn't read it fast enough, it ends with some cliffhangers that indicate there is definitely a third book coming. When that book comes out, I'm reading it. Overall great writing, this would make a good movie adaptation.