Long Island by Colm Tóibín
'Long Island' is Colm Tóibín’s sequel to his acclaimed novel Brooklyn. Set in the 1970s, the story revisits Eilis Lacey, now living with her Italian-American husband Tony and their two children in a housing commune on Long Island. The novel opens with a dramatic twist: Tony has fathered a child with another woman, which shatters the family’s stability and sends Eilis back to Ireland for the first time in two decades.
Tóibín masterfully explores themes of identity, belonging, and the immigrant experience. Eilis, who once struggled to adapt to life in New York, now finds herself equally out of place in her adopted home and her native Ireland. The novel delves into her internal conflicts and the complexities of her relationships, particularly as she navigates the fallout from Tony’s infidelity.
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.
