Long Island

The sublime, long-awaited sequel to Tóibín's modern masterpiece Brooklyn finds Eilis Fiorello driven back to Ireland in the wake of shattering news.

Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month for June 2025

Long Island is Colm Tóibín’s masterpiece: an exquisite, exhilarating novel that asks whether it is possible to truly return to the past and renew the great love that seemed gone forever.

The love story of the century

A man with an Irish accent knocks on Eilis Fiorello’s door on Long Island and in that moment everything changes. Eilis and Tony have built a secure, happy life here since leaving Brooklyn - perhaps a little stifled by the in-laws so close, but twenty years married and with two children looking towards a good future.

And yet this stranger will reveal something that will make Eilis question the life she has created. For the first time in years she suddenly feels very far from home and the revelation will see her turn towards Ireland once again. Back to her mother. Back to the town and the people she had chosen to leave behind. Did she make the wrong choice marrying Tony all those years ago? Is it too late now to take a different path?

MEDIA REVIEWS

Long Island is the best new novel I’ve read in years – and it’s as persuasive an argument in defence of the unique capability of the novel form as you could ever hope to find - Megan Nolan, Telegraph

You don't have to have read Brooklyn to enjoy the many pleasures of Long Island. It is a masterful novel full of longing and regret. A tale of lovers reconnecting, of compromise, and the settling that can come later in life. Intensely moving and yet full of restraint, I was sad to turn the final page - Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain

A brilliant novel . . . it is beautifully crafted and makes for a riveting, wonderful read - Elizabeth Strout, Observer

Heartbreak, wistfulness, cracking dialogue . . . This is Tóibín at his best - Robbie Millen, The Times

Morally and psychologically meaty . . . Engrossing, truthful and humane, [Long Island] is a magnificent achievement - Johanna Thomas-Corr, The Times

His best yet . . . It reads like the tensest of stage plays, but with all the pleasures of interiority that the novel form allows. I haven't wanted to hug this many characters in a while - Naoise Dolan, author of Exciting Times and The Happy Couple

A masterful and uproariously entertaining book, glittering with all of Toibin's intelligence and humane wit, as compelling, passionate and quietly enigmatic as its unforgettable protagonist Eilis Lacey - Colin Barrett, author of Wild Houses