I loved every word of this book! It's been awhile since I read a book straight through but this one was very hard to put down. I didn't read the first book, Brooklyn. But, I had no problem getting caught up. It seems that there will be a third book as well and I can't wait! Ellis Lacey is Irish married to Tony Fiorelli who is from a large Italianfamily. They live on a cul-de-sac with his parents and brothers' families surrounding them. The story takes place in 1976 with Eilis now in her forties with two teenage children. When an Irishman turns up on her doorstep bringing unpleasant news, Eilish refuses to be a part of the situation and goes back to Ireland for her mother's 80th birthday. Don't miss this book, it's everything I love in a book! ( )

If you have not read Brooklyn, the first book in the Eilis Lacey series, do that before you embark upon this next book in the series. (It may be sufficient to watch the beautiful film version of that book.) Given the ending of this one, at least one more book is MANDATORY and lord do I have a love/hate relationship with cliffhangers!

Long Island picks up about 20 years after the end of Brooklyn. Eilis and Tony have moved, with the rest of Tony's family, to neighboring houses in Lindenhurst, Long Island. Tony's family's plumbing business is a success. Eilis and Tony have raised two children, Rosella and Larry. Everyone is living a placid suburban life amongst a sea of family members who are up in each other's business all the time. I am going to avoid spoilers in this review, but I need to cover something that happens in the opening pages which sets up the rest of the story. If you don't want to know, stop reading now.

Tony has done some plumbing in a local home and it appears he and the lady of the house cleared each other's pipes. Long story short, she is pregnant and her husband has said he will not raise the baby and will deliver it to Eilis and Tony's doorstep upon its birth. Eilis had put her foot down and said she is not raising another woman's child and if any family member takes in the baby she is leaving. Having reached a standoff Eilis leaves Tony to decide what he is going to to and runs off to her mother's home in Enniscorthy (County Wexford I believe) after having been absent for 20 years. Those who read Brooklyn will recall that last time Eilis ran off to Enniscorthy immediately after marrying Tony she had a romantic relationship with Jim Farrell. She gadded about town with Jim and another couple. For readers who read Brooklyn the fact that Eilis is living in Long Island with Tony is, I guess, a spoiler regarding the outcome of her relationship with Jim. So here we are, years later. Jim has never married and runs the family pub, and has never fully gotten over Eilis. Her return presents many complications in his life. I will not get into that because it is the heart of this story. Eilis needs to figure out the rest of her life, and her choices will impact many people in Ireland and America.

I don't want to say more, but the story is beautiful and enveloping. It is a quiet story, as we expect from Toibin, but not as quiet as the other books I have read by him. Those books were fully character studies, but this leans more into plot. Also, in this book we have three POV characters though Toibin usually focuses on one character. In Long Island seeing things only from Eilis's perspective would not have worked. Wed need to see things from the other perspectives to fully understand the stakes in Eilis's decisions. Also, the other main characters, Jim and Nancy (Eilis' former BFF and also half of the other couple who Jim and Eilis hung out with in the Ireland-set portions of Brooklyn) are really great characters. I loved spending time with both. They manage to be very steady but still full of surprises.

This is great storytelling. If you want to take up residence in an Irish village for a little while this is a great choice. (All of Toibin's books that I have read are great choices for this.) Already looking forward to book 3. I just hope it comes faster than this since 15 years have elapsed since Brooklyn came out.

I listened this, and Jessie Buckley's narration was great except when she was talking like the Long Island Italians, who all sounded the same regardless of age, education, or gender -- and also that is not at all how LI Italian people sound. Luckily that was a tiny fraction of the narration after the first half hour. ( )

This is a sequel to [Brooklyn], which I read many years ago. But it can easily be read as a stand alone. Eilish Lacey is Irish, and married to Tony Fiorello. She lives in Long Island with her husband and two teen-aged children, Rosella and Larry. The Italian family live very close to each other , and are much intertwined. One day a man knocks on Eilish's door and tells her that her husband has fathered a child with his wife. This man tells Eilish that when his wife gives birth to the baby, he will deposit " the bastard" on the family's doorstep. Understandably, Eilish is shocked. Soon afterward, she tells her husband p. 21 " There is no circumstances under which I am going to look after a baby. It is your business, not mine. "

From there, Eilish decides to return to Ireland for the first time since her marriage, ostensibly to visit her mother for her 80th birthday. When her husband asks when she will return, she gives no reply. Her children join her in Ireland to meet the family. Upon her return, Eilish meets up with old best friend, the now widowed Nancy, and her old flame, Jim. This is a riveting story of love, loss, grief and loneliness. The ending is ambiguous , and I cannot wait for the third installment.

Highly recommended. ( )

Fans of Colm Toibin’s novel Brooklyn will be ecstatic to know that Eilis Lacey’s story is continuing in Long Island.

Brooklyn is the story of Eilis who leaves Ireland for Brooklyn, where she met and married an Italian American, Tony. Soon after their wedding, she returned to Ireland where she met and fell in love with Jim. Knowing she was pregnant, she returned to America and her husband, while brokenhearted Jim remains a bachelor.

Long Island finds Eilis a mother of two, overwhelmed by her husband’s close, intrusive, family. Her life is upended when she learns that Tony had an encounter that resulted in a pregnancy, and the woman’s husband warns that he will leave the baby on Eilis’ doorstep. Eilis is adamant that she will not have the baby in her house, and if Tony and his family keep it, she will not stay with him.

With her mother’s 80th birthday coming, Eilis returns to Ireland to be with her, and to give time for Tony and his family to let her know their decision, and to decide herself what she will do if they keep the baby. The children will later join her to meet their Irish family.

Meanwhile, Jim has been involved with Nancy and they have secretly decided to marry after Nancy’s daughter’s wedding is over.

But seeing each other again, Eilis and Jim realize they still have feelings for each other, and secretly met, finally consummating their relationship. But secrets don’t stay secret, and Nancy and family pressure Eilis and Jim, their choices constrained by many considerations.

Eilis’ life on Long Island and her small Irish town are beautifully realized. She does not feel at home in either place, and both communities intrude into her affairs. There is a profound sense of isolation as Eilis struggles with her choices. Wonderfully, we are also allowed into Nancy’s and Jim’s inner struggles.

The story is a revisiting of Brooklyn with Eilis in the same position of having to decide between Tony and Jim. The novel leaves us in the middle of things, and eager for the third in the series to resolve the open questions.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book. ( )

This sequel to Tóibín’s 2009 novel Brooklyn is set twenty years later, in the 1970s.

Eilis Fiorello (nee Lacey) is now in her forties. She and her husband Tony and their children Rosella and Larry live on Long Island next to two of Tony’s brothers and his parents. Though sometimes feeling stifled by all her in-laws, she seems content until she learns something that shatters her life and threatens her marriage. Confused and unsettled, she decides to go to Ireland to visit her mother as her 80th birthday approaches. Once in her small hometown she inevitably encounters Jim Farrell, the man with whom she’d had a romantic relationship two decades earlier even though she was already secretly married to Tony at the time. Jim, a successful pub owner, has never married but has been meeting secretly with the widowed Nancy Sheridan, Eilis’s best friend at one time; the two plan to announce their engagement at the end of the summer. The lives of Eilis, Jim, and Nancy become entwined and complications arise.

This book will certainly appeal to lovers of Tóibín’s novels. I enjoyed meeting once again the characters of Brooklyn, and even Nora Webster makes a cameo appearance. Eilis’s mother is just as I remember her – feisty and cantankerous and unpredictable, a woman who reminds me of my own mother.

When I read Brooklyn, Eilis reminded me of the protagonist in the short story “Eveline” in James Joyce’s The Dubliners: a passive young woman living in a stifling environment who chooses duty above her personal desires. Her reaction to receiving stunning information about Tony suggests she is now more assertive, but her response is still rather muted. Her indecisiveness is certainly a factor in how events unfold both in the U.S. and Ireland. For me, in many ways, she remains an enigmatic character, but then I don’t think she fully understands herself either. She insists that she is innocent, didn’t cause and does not want to be blamed in any way for the situation at home, but her behaviour shows that she is either blind to her failings or being disingenuous.

I found my feelings about characters changed. Jim, for instance, I liked at first and found him a sympathetic character. He treats Nancy well and respects her wishes about the engagement announcement. But as the novel progresses, I found him fickle and weak. He describes himself like some of his customers “fully aware that they should go home or that they should not even consider having another drink. He watched them doing what made no sense, unwilling to listen to argument or reason. . . . Jim realized that he himself was like one of his worst customers, someone who knew what he should not do but was driven to do it regardless, no matter how much trouble it would cause.” By omission, he lies to both Eilis and Nancy and even plans to continue to be less than totally honest: “there was no reason why Eilis should ever know that he had had any relationship at all with Nancy. Even in the future, he thought, it was something he would never share with her.”

Of course that is the great strength of this novel; its characters are nuanced and authentic, reflecting the complexities of human nature. Everyone has disappointments and regrets, and hopes and dreams. Everyone has been betrayed and has betrayed others so all suffer consequences. All are torn between commitments/responsibilities and longings/desires.

As in Brooklyn, the inability or unwillingness to express one’s feelings is a major theme. For instance, when leaving for Ireland, Eilis knows what she wants to say to Tony but she avoids using the word divorce because “it would change things between them.” Characters often wonder what someone else is thinking because so much is left unsaid. There’s an interesting exchange between two characters: the question “’Can I ask if you love me?’” is answered with “’That’s why I am here.’” Then the response to the follow-up question of “’Can you say it?” is “’Yes, I can.’” But “I love you” is never spoken.

The book has as much tension as any thriller. As things become complicated, readers wonder what will happen but also find themselves asking what they would do and what they want to happen. Past events have shown that there are no real secrets in a small town, so it is inevitable that eventually the truth will be revealed to all. It becomes clear that a happy ending is impossible. Too many dreams are torn apart for there to be a happy ever after.

In fact the ending will leave some readers dissatisfied. Readers will certainly be able to fill in what happens but there is definitely a degree of uncertainty. A third book would not be a surprise, especially since Brooklyn and Long Island are being referred to as the Eilis Lacey series.

Written in Tóibín’s typical quiet, restrained prose, this novel, like his others, depicts complex emotions and complicated interactions. I highly recommend it and will not be surprised to see it on literary awards lists.

Note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

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