Long Island : a novel / Colm Tóibín.

By:

Tóibín, Colm, 1955- [author.]

Material type: Text

TextPublisher: New York : Scribner, 2024Edition: First Scribner hardcover editionDescription: 1 volume ; 23 cmContent type:

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

9781476785110
9781476785127

Subject(s):

Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Online version:: Long IslandDDC classification:

823/.914 23/eng/20231030

LOC classification:

PR6070.O455 L66 2024

Summary: "Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, 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 the town in Ireland where she grew up 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, 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 will 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's life are thunderous and dangerous, and there's no one defter than Tóibín at giving them language. This is a gorgeous story of a woman alone in a marriage and the deepest of 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. Eilis is perhaps Tóibín's most moving and unforgettable character, and this novel is a masterpiece"-- Provided by publisher.

List(s) this item appears in: Coming Soon Fiction notes: Click to open in new window

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Shelving location	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Adult Book	Phillipsburg Free Public Library	Adult Fiction	New Books	FIC TOIBIN	Not for loan		36748002556209

Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

*Named a Most Anticipated Book by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Good Housekeeping, AARP, and more*

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.

"Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, 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 the town in Ireland where she grew up 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, 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 will 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's life are thunderous and dangerous, and there's no one defter than Tóibín at giving them language. This is a gorgeous story of a woman alone in a marriage and the deepest of 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. Eilis is perhaps Tóibín's most moving and unforgettable character, and this novel is a masterpiece"-- Provided by publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

The quietly devastating sequel to Brooklyn picks up two decades later with Eilis Lacey, now in her 40s, hemmed in by her overbearing in-laws on Long Island in 1976. First Eilis discovers that her husband, Tony, has been unfaithful, then she learns his family has decided without her consent to raise the child of his illicit affair. Furious, Eilis returns to Enniscorthy, the small town in Ireland she left in the 1950s, and arranges for her and Tony's teenaged daughter and son to join her there to celebrate her mother's birthday. Eilis hasn't been back since the death of her sister, Rose, many years earlier. On that trip, though she was already married to Tony without her family's knowledge, she fell in love with pub owner Jim Farrell. Jim has never married but is soon to become engaged to the widow Nancy Sheridan, Eilis's dear old friend. Now, Eilis's second homecoming upends life in the village as she and Nancy each stumble toward what they believe they deserve, and Jim considers what's more important: his commitments or his desires. Tóibín is brilliant at tallying the weight of what goes unsaid between people ("They could do everything except say out loud what it was they were thinking"), and at using quotidian situations to illuminate longing as a universal and often-inescapable aspect of the human condition. Tóibín's mastery is on full display here. Agent: Peter Straus, RCW Literary. (May)

Booklist Review

Eilis and Tony, first introduced in Tóibín's acclaimed best-seller Brooklyn (2009), have now been married 20 years. The routines of domesticity, parenthood, and Sunday dinners with the surrounding Fiorello clan in Lindenhurst, Long Island, have suddenly brought them to middle age. Their brilliant daughter Rosella is preparing for college, and son Larry is finishing high school. This picture of domestic sanguinity is disrupted when a man arrives and informs Eilis that Tony has impregnated the man's wife and that the baby will be handed over to Tony to raise. Eilis objects but meets resistance from Tony and his family. Since Eilis' mother will soon be celebrating her eightieth birthday, Eilis uses the opportunity to return to Ireland for the first time in two decades and, hopefully, clear her head. As Eilis gets settled back in Enniscorthy, she renews her friendship with the now widowed Nancy Sheridan and wonders about Jim Farrell, her fling of years ago. Tóibín writes with unparalleled fluidity and grace. Each character is intricately drawn with psychological acuity, emerging as fully, almost achingly human. Tóibín is a philosopher of the soul. He understands the complex emotions, the dreams, fear, doubt, and hope that drive human activity. Eilis is complicated, fearless, and compelling, much like her brilliant creator.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Readers will be thrilled by Tóibín's return to the story of Irish immigrant Eilis Lacey.

Kirkus Book Review

An acclaimed novelist revisits the central characters of his best-known work. At the end of Brooklyn (2009), Eilis Lacey departed Ireland for the second and final time--headed back to New York and the Italian American husband she had secretly married after first traveling there for work. In her hometown of Enniscorthy, she left behind Jim Farrell, a young man she'd fallen in love with during her visit, and the inevitable gossip about her conduct. Tóibín's 11th novel introduces readers to Eilis 20 years later, in 1976, still married to Tony Fiorello and living in the titular suburbia with their two teenage children. But Eilis' seemingly placid existence is disturbed when a stranger confronts her, accusing Tony of having an affair with his wife--now pregnant--and threatening to leave the baby on their doorstep. "She'd known men like this in Ireland," Tóibín writes. "Should one of them discover that their wife had been unfaithful and was pregnant as a result, they would not have the baby in the house." This shock sends Eilis back to Enniscorthy for a visit--or perhaps a longer stay. (Eilis' motives are as inscrutable as ever, even to herself.) She finds the never-married Jim managing his late father's pub; unbeknownst to Eilis (and the town), he's become involved with her widowed friend Nancy, who struggles to maintain the family chip shop. Eilis herself appears different to her old friends: "Something had happened to her in America," Nancy concludes. Although the novel begins with a soap-operatic confrontation--and ends with a dramatic denouement, as Eilis' fate is determined in a plot twist worthy of Edith Wharton--the author is a master of quiet, restrained prose, calmly observing the mores and mindsets of provincial Ireland, not much changed from the 1950s. A moving portrait of rueful middle age and the failure to connect. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.