Coming of age in small-town Ireland in the years following World War II, Eilis Lacey is one among many of her generation who cannot find a job in the miserable economy. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis to live and work in America, she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind.

Eilis takes up her new life in a crowded Brooklyn boarding house, working in a department store on Fulton Street. Slowly, the pain of parting is buried beneath the rhythms of her new life, until she finds a sort of happiness—and, when she least expects it, love—but then, devastating news from home threatens the promise of her future.

By far Tóibín's most instantly engaging and emotionally resonant novel yet, Brooklyn will make readers fall in love with his gorgeous writing and spellbinding characters.