Omschrijving
A Times and Sunday Times Best Book of 2024, the sequel to the beloved bestseller, Brooklyn
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
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
Heartbreak, wistfulness, cracking dialogue . . . This is Tóibín at his best
Morally and pscyhologically meaty . . . Engrossing, truthful and humane, [Long Island] is a magnificent achievement
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
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
Tóibín is the consummate cartographer of the private self, summoning with restrained acuity (and a delicious streak of sly humour) the thoughts his characters struggle to find words for . . . [Long Island is] the work of a writer at the height of his considerable powers, a story of ordinary lives that contains multitudes.
Colm Tóibín's heartrending follow-up to his beloved 2009 novel, Brooklyn, is the rare instance in which a sequel is every bit as good as the original
Exquisitely drawn
Brooklyn and Long Island . . . capture the decency and ordinariness of the characters as well as the deep emotional ruptures that drive them toward disorder. The confrontations between these people, so long delayed, feel momentous and hugely affecting. These pendant novels, I think, will be the fiction for which this wonderful writer is best remembered.
Tóibín [is] a master of his art . . . exquisite
Compellingly readable, carefully constructed, and beautifully written. Once you start, you'll be hooked
There are few authors more attuned to human yearning . . . a wistful novel, heavy with longing . . . [with] a tension to rival any thriller . . . a sequel that more than earns its place
First in Brooklyn, and now in Long Island, Tóibín has conducted an exhilarating masterclass in extract the maximum effect from the minimum of prose, with the leanest and cleanest narrative line . . . His gifts are so remarkable
Does a procession of brilliant vignettes a great novel make? There is more to Long Island than this, but at times, the whole package, so expertly put together, the prose so dazzlingly polished, feels like a studio-ready screenplay
Long Island often reads like a masterclass in everything Tóibín can do . . . [The] silences and absences at the core of this subtle, intelligent and moving book mean the reader has to do a certain amount of work – but it is very well rewarded
Tóibín is a class act and his eye for the absurdities of Irish life keeps the pages turning
Long Island . . . hums with the haunting energy of lives unlived, suppressed passions and packs a sustained emotional punch. The characters can be infuriating, but with an assured and poignant tone of quiet resignation woven throughout, this is absolutely riveting writing
Long Island is written in the disciplined, polished prose for which Tóibín is known . . . For all his reservations about sequels, Tóibín, a writer evidently at the height of his powers, has written a remarkably good one
Long Island will deservedly cement Tóibín's place at the top table of novelists, not just in Ireland but across the world, as an astute and precious chronicler of the human heart in all its foibles. Exquisite.
Colm Tóibín was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of ten previous novels, including The Master, Brooklyn, and The Magician, and two collections of stories. He has been three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2021, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature. Tóibín was appointed the Laureate for Irish Fiction for 2022-2024. Long Island is his eleventh novel.