Publisher, Blackstone Audiobooks (May 2009)

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Winner of the Costa Book Award

An iTunes Best Book (Fiction) of 2009

An Amazon Top 10 Fiction Book of 2009

One of Oprah’s “Irresistible" Reads

“Brooklyn is enhanced by the velvety voice of Kirsten Potter, whose narration is skilled and personable. The quiet progress of protagonist Eilis as she journeys from small-town Ireland to postwar Brooklyn is enlivened by Potter's effortless delivery of accents and personalities. Various characters move through Brooklyn's streets and Eilis' life, and Potter is at the ready with distinct voices for each one.”—AudioFile

“[A] classical coming-of-age story, pure, unsensationalized, quietly profound....There are no antagonists in this novel, no psychodramas, no angst. There is only the sound of a young woman slowly and deliberately stepping into herself, learning to make and stand behind her choices, finding herself able to withstand hardship, growing into the wisdom that fate will render all our choices irrelevant in the end.”—O, The Oprah Magazine

“Potter's low, gentle voice suits Eilis' disposition....she produces the American characters without flaw and delivers the general narrative at a nice, easy pace.”—Washington Post

"A compelling characterization of a woman caught between two worlds....A fine and touching novel, persuasive proof of Tóibín's ever-increasing skills and range."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“[Toibin] is an expert, patient fisherman of submerged emotions....In Brooklyn, Colm Toibin quietly, modestly shows how place can assert itself, enfolding the visitor, staking its claim.”—New York Times

“Tóibín conveys Eilis' transformative struggles with an aching lyricism reminiscent of the mature Henry James and ultimately confers upon his readers a sort of grace that illuminates the opportunities for tenderness in our lives. Both more accessible and more sublime than his previous works, this is highly recommended.”—Library Journal

“[A] stirring and satisfying moral tale. Tóibín, author of The Master, a fine-tuned novel on the lonely last years of Henry James, revisits, diminuendo, the wrenching finale of The Portrait of a Lady.”—Publishers Weekly

Coming of age in small-town Ireland in the years following World War II, Eilis Lacey is one among many of her generation who cannot find a job in the miserable economy. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis to live and work in America, she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind.

Eilis takes up her new life in a crowded Brooklyn boarding house, working in a department store on Fulton Street. Slowly, the pain of parting is buried beneath the rhythms of her new life, until she finds a sort of happiness—and, when she least expects it, love. But then, devastating news from home threatens the promise of her future.

By far Tóibín's most instantly engaging and emotionally resonant novel yet, Brooklyn will make readers fall in love with his gorgeous writing and spellbinding characters.

About the Author: COLM TÓIBÍN’s novel, The Master, won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, Le prix du meilleur livre étranger, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His other books of fiction include The Story of the Night, The Blackwater Lightship, a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the short-fiction collection Mothers and Sons. He was one of the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize judges in Toronto. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.