Colm Tobin’s novel Brooklyn tells a seemingly simple tale of a young girl’s immigration from Ireland to New York with quiet eloquence. Eilis Lacey lives with her widowed mother and glamorous older sister Rose in a small town in Ireland where jobs, opportunities, and eligible men are scarce. With help from a priest and encouragement from her sister, Eilis leaves all she knows and travels to “a part of America that is just like Ireland” - Brooklyn. Although overwhelmed by the unfamiliar Eilis manages to find a job, a room in a boarding house, enroll in school and fall in love with an earnest young Italian man. Just as she’s settling into her new life a family crisis calls her back to Ireland where she must she must choose which place to call home.
With sensitivity and subtly Toibin portrays the immigrant experience and the complexities of what finally makes a place home. ~Anne