It’s not required to read the prelude to Colm Tóibín’s Long Island – this story stands alone; or your point of reference could simply be the movie Brooklyn, the beautiful period drama about Eilis Lacey’s emigration from Ireland to America. Long Island fast forwards 20 years from the ending of the novel and screen adaptation. It’s now the 1970s, Eilis is still married to Tony, they have two teenagers, and they live uncomfortably close to all her Italian in-laws. Immediately—in the first pages—we learn Tony has cheated on Eilis, and she must make new decisions about where home truly is: New York or her village in Ireland. Familiar characters from the prequel return: her mother, best friend Nancy, and Jim Farrell, the hometown boy who loved Eilis. This story is filled with secrets, love affairs, unfulfilled dreams, future plans, and an ambiguous ending that will leave you wanting Tóibín to pick up the story another 20 years later.
