A decade ago (2015) the movie “Brooklyn” was nominated for Best Picture. I remember loving that movie. But I just recently read the book this movie was based on, and right after I read its newer sequel. Being able to continue the story immediately was a great reading experience.

This series of novels that starts with Brooklyn (2009) by Colm Toibin follows Ellis Lacy as a young woman who immigrates to the United States (Brooklyn, New York) from Ireland in the 1950s not by her own choice. She leaves her family, knows no one in America except the Priest who sponsored her, and has to start her life completely over. As she is finally getting settled, a tragedy takes her back to Ireland, and then she is emotionally torn between the two places and the situations she has developed in each.

Next, is Long Island (2024) that picks up the story of her life 20 years later and with a new trip back to Ireland (the first since the last trip home we read about).

Both explore how place changes a person – what makes sense somewhere may not make sense somewhere else.

I loved both of these books for the depth of the Lacy’s character and the description of the immigrant experience, from the passage in third class to the boarding houses, the first jobs, and the social events and customs of the immigrant communities of this time period. The story is complicated but full of love and the ties to two countries.