Brooklyn - Colm Toibin

Set in the 1950s, Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn (Scribner, $25) follows Eilis Lacey from her small town in Ireland to the big city in America. Eilis is ambivalent about immigrating but wants to please her family. Despite an acute bout of homesickness, she at last settles into her new life at a boarding house run by an Irish woman, a job in a department store, and night classes in accounting. But when she has to return to Ireland due to a family tragedy, she finds her feelings once again in turmoil—especially regarding a choice she must make between suitors on either side of the Atlantic. Tóibín evokes the period and places in rich, full detail.