Join us for a discussion of Colm Toíbín’s Brooklyn with Judy Levin on Thursday, 10/21/10 in the downstairs meeting room.
Brooklyn is the winner of the Costa "Novel of the Year" Award (formerly the Whitbread Award) for 2009 in Great Britain.
In Brooklyn Toíbín contrasts life in small-town Ireland with the excitement of big-city Brooklyn in the early 1950s. Eilis Lacey, a smart, hard-working young woman must leave employment-poor Ireland to find a job. She travels to New York City, where under the auspices of an Irish priest, she secures work at a department store and finds lodging in a rooming house for young women. Soon she meets a handsome, charming Italian man. But her adventures come to an abrupt halt when her sister dies in Ireland. Eilis returns home and must face the decision to stay put or go back to the more stimulating life she has begun to create in Brooklyn.
In Brooklyn Toíbín contrasts life in small-town Ireland with the excitement of big-city Brooklyn in the early 1950s. Eilis Lacey, a smart, hard-working young woman must leave employment-poor Ireland to find a job. She travels to New York City, where under the auspices of an Irish priest, she secures work at a department store and finds lodging in a rooming house for young women. Soon she meets a handsome, charming Italian man. But her adventures come to an abrupt halt when her sister dies in Ireland. Eilis returns home and must face the decision to stay put or go back to the more stimulating life she has begun to create in Brooklyn.
Born in 1955 in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, 
Colm Tóibín currently resides in Dublin. He received a B.A. from University College, Dublin. He is the author of five previous novels including The Master, The Story of the Night, and The Blackwater Lightship, which was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize. He also wrote a collection of short stories, Mothers and Sons. (All titles are available at the Library under Fiction TOI.)
Colm Tóibín currently resides in Dublin. He received a B.A. from University College, Dublin. He is the author of five previous novels including The Master, The Story of the Night, and The Blackwater Lightship, which was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize. He also wrote a collection of short stories, Mothers and Sons. (All titles are available at the Library under Fiction TOI.) Take a look at Simon and Schuster’s website for a list of discussion questions: http://books.simonandschuster.net/Brooklyn/Colm-Toibin/9781439138311/reading_group_guide
Or just come and listen to Judy Levin lead us through our impressions of this book that The New Yorker calls “a narrative of remarkable power”.
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