Book description
In a small town in the south-east of Ireland in the 1950s, Eilis
Lacey is one among many of her generation who cannot find work at
home. So when a job is offered in America, it is clear that she must
go. Leaving her family and home, Eilis sets off to forge a new life
for herself in Brooklyn. Young, homesick and alone, she gradually
buries the pain of parting beneath the rhythms of a new life - days at
the till in a large department store, night classes in Brooklyn
College and Friday evenings on the dance floor of the parish hall -
until she realizes that she has found a sort of happiness. But when
tragic news summons her back to Ireland, and the constrictions of her
old life unexpectedly give way to new possibilities, she finds herself
facing a terrible choice: between love and happiness in the land where
she belongs and the promises she must keep on the far side of the ocean.
Brooklyn is a tender story of great love and loss, and of the
heartbreaking choice between personal freedom and duty. In the
character of Eilis Lacey Colm T ib n has created a remarkable heroine
and in Brooklyn a novel of devastating emotional power.
Colm T ib n was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of five
other novels, including
The Blackwater Lightship
and
The Master,
both of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and a collection
of stories,
Mothers and Sons
.
