Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

A warm, endearing story about love, emigrating, loss and homesickness. Told between Ireland and Brooklyn, New York, set in the 1950’s it is so full of details: dress, music, the Church you can picture yourself there. And, is carefully cast with not-too-stereotypical people, though we do have the curtain twitchers and the relatives poking their noses in on both sides of the Atlantic.

It is the story of a young woman who is unable to get good employment in her hometown in Ireland being noticed by a Brooklyn based Roman Catholic Father and having passage, accommodation and employment arranged for her in New York and what happens in her life thereafter.

I note that the film of this book is out and is currently (Jan 2015) showing; it will make a good movie, but reading the book will bring a deeper pleasure.

The New Yorker had this to say “Toibin’s genius is that he makes it impossible for us to walk away.”

Catalogue link: Brooklyn

Posted by Catherine