Long Island

Reviews / Votes

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 -- Megan Nolan * Telegraph * 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 -- Douglas Stuart, author of <i> Shuggie Bain <i> A brilliant novel . . . it is beautifully crafted and makes for a riveting, wonderful read -- Elizabeth Strout * Observer * Heartbreak, wistfulness, cracking dialogue . . . This is Toibin at his best -- Robbie Millen * The Times * Morally and psychologically meaty . . . Engrossing, truthful and humane, [Long Island] is a magnificent achievement -- Johanna Thomas-Corr * 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 <i> Exciting Times </i> and <i> The Happy Couple </i> 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 <i>Wild Houses</i> Toibin 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. -- Clare Clark * Guardian * Colm Toibin'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 * Toibin [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, Toibin 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 -- Robert McCrum * 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 -- Simon Schama * Financial Times * Long Island often reads like a masterclass in everything Toibin 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 * Toibin 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 Toibin is known . . . For all his reservations about sequels, Toibin, a writer evidently at the height of his powers, has written a remarkably good one * Sunday Independent * Long Island will deservedly cement Toibin'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 Toibin 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. -- Bella Mackie * Observer * The follow-up to Colm Toibin's beloved Brooklyn was years in the making, but it was worth the wait * The Times *