Long Island

By: Colm Toibin

Narrated by: Jessie Buckley

Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * Named a Most Anticipated Book by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Good Housekeeping, AARP, and more.

From the beloved, critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author comes a spectacularly moving and intense novel of secrecy, misunderstanding, and love, the story of Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic heroine of Brooklyn, Tóibín’s most popular work twenty years later.

Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber and one of four Italian American brothers, all of whom live in neighboring houses on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island, with their wives and children and Tony’s parents, a huge extended family that lives and works, eats and plays together. It is the spring of 1976 and Eilis, now in her forties with two teenage children, has no one to rely on in this still-new country. Though her ties to Ireland remain stronger than those that hold her to her new land and home, she has not returned in decades.

One day, when Tony is at his job and Eilis is in her home office doing her accounting, an Irishman comes to the door asking for her by name. He tells her that his wife is pregnant with Tony’s child and that when the baby is born, he will not raise it but instead deposit it on Eilis’s doorstep. It is what Eilis does—and what she refuses to do—in response to this stunning news that makes Tóibín’s novel so riveting.

Long Island is about longings unfulfilled, even unrecognized. The silences in Eilis’ life are thunderous and dangerous, and there’s no one more deft than Tóibín at giving them language. This is a gorgeous story of a woman alone in a marriage and the deepest bonds she rekindles on her return to the place and people she left behind, to ways of living and loving she thought she’d lost.

©2024 Colm Toibin (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Good storyline

terrible ending. after 2 whole books of this storyline, no conclusion . disappointed. listening for hours, but getting no satisfaction

Wanted more closure

Moderator was great story needed more development of characters. I did not read the first book that may have helped.

Loved reading about Ellis again. But...it just...ends.

As a massive lover of Brooklyn, I enjoyed the 20yr look ahead with Long Island and was listening super intently, on the edge of my seat at certain points. I even got used to the narrators somewhat distracting New York accent (she did her absolute best! I just found it funny). But overalll I feel like we're left to wondee what will happen, and. I feel a bit shortchanged. I recall feeling the same at the end of Brooklyn. Maybe the eventual screenwriters of the Long Island film adaptation will fix improve the ending like they did with the Brooklyn screenplay! We'll see!

Good story

He tells a good story...easy to listen to.
More of the story was in Ireland rather than on Long Island though. However I hated the ending...

Great story telling

From the first chapter, I’m haunted by the characters. Each unfolding in subtle ways. The story captures cultural tendencies of Irish and Italian at a time, in the not too distant past, when we were all more closely tied to family and cultural identity. The narration is also very enjoyable.

colm tuibin long Island

very interesting ending, I was not expecting such a non conclusion ending . I guess I can imagine any ending I like.

Tensions in and among each character against the backdrop of differing cultures and geography

Keeping track of all the different people and their relationships to each other much less locals

Narration is EXCELLENT

I love this so much, I’m immediately starting Brooklyn. I didn’t want it to end

Beautiful book

Loved every second of this moving story. Grateful for these complex, searching characters. Narration is fantastic.

Not anywhere as good as Brooklyn

What a disappointment! No character is developed with a soft-side. All the men are wimps….sadly the sullen, self-centered Alish remains understated longing and withholds from family and friends.
A fall from grace! No depth in the “telling” of what happened to the “young love and what happens “.