Colm Tóibín’s tender story of deep love and devastating loss, and of the heartbreaking choice between two sides of an ocean, personal freedom and duty.

In a small town in the south-east of Ireland in the 1950s, work is hard to find. Eilis Lacey escapes to forge a new life for herself in Brooklyn, America. Young, homesick and alone, she gradually buries the pain of parting to find a sort of happiness. But when tragic news summons her back to Ireland, she finds herself facing a terrible choice: between love and happiness in the land where she belongs and the promises she must keep on the far side of the ocean.

Longlisted
The Man Booker Prize 2009
Published by
Viking, Penguin
Publication date
Colm Tóibín

Colm Tóibín

About the Author

Colm Tóibín is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic and poet. He was born in County Wexford, Ireland.
More about Colm Tóibín

Other nominated books by Colm Tóibín

The Testament of Mary
The Master
The Blackwater Lightship