"Young Eilis Lacey dreams of life beyond the confines of her tiny Irish village, but unlike her beautiful sister, Rose, Eilis' gifts are of a more practical nature: she has a head for numbers, and is a loving and dutiful daughter.
Yet her ambition cannot be hidden and soon is noted by the Parish Priest, Father Flood. Via a church contact, he arranges for Eilis to travel to America where a job opportunity has arisen in New York with a reputable ""merchant of Italian origin"".
Eilis finds lodgings in an eccentric boarding house and ekes out an existence in the cosmopolitan melting pot that is 1950s Brooklyn, impressing her employer, outwitting her landlady, and even falling in love. It seems her dream is truly becoming a reality.
But then fate intervenes: a family crisis back home forces Eilis to make a choice between the past and the future, the old world and the new.
Told with a masterful and elegant simplicity, Brooklyn is a sublime Trans-Atlantic coming-of-age story by one of the UK's greatest living writers."
By:
Colm Tóibín Imprint: Picador Country of Publication: Australia Dimensions:
Height: 198mm,
Width: 133mm,
Spine: 17mm
Weight: 201g ISBN:9780330425612 ISBN 10: 0330425617 Pages: 320 Publication Date:01 February 2010 Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format:Paperback Publisher's Status: Out of Print
Colm Toibin is the author of five previous novels, collections of short stories and many works of non-fiction. He has twice been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for The Blackwater Lightship (1999) and The Master (2004).
Short-listed for Galaxy National Book Awards: International Author of the Year 2010
Short-listed for International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2011
Shortlisted for Galaxy National Book Award: International Author of the Year 2010.
Shortlisted for Galaxy National Book Awards: International Author of the Year 2010.
Shortlisted for International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2011.