Long Island

Morally and pscyhologically meaty . . . Engrossing, truthful and humane, [Long Island] is a magnificent achievement

The Times

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

Naoise Dolan, author of Exciting Times and The Happy Couple

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

Colin Barrett, author of Wild Houses

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.

Guardian

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

NPR

Exquisitely drawn

New York Times

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.

Wall Street Journal

Tóibín [is] a master of his art . . . exquisite

Los Angeles Times

Compellingly readable, carefully constructed, and beautifully written. Once you start, you'll be hooked

Irish Examiner

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

Inews

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

Independent

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

Financial Times

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

Guardian

Tóibín is a class act and his eye for the absurdities of Irish life keeps the pages turning

Mail on Sunday

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

York Press

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

Sunday Independent

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.

Business Post

In Long Island, Colm Tóibín has finally given us a follow-up to Brooklyn . . . I read it in one sitting, thrilled to be back with the characters that captivated me last time.

Observer

A gorgeous slow burn of a story, suffused with a sense of longing and might-have-beens

The Independent