Long Island by Colm Toibin

Long Island by Colm Toibin published 2024 This is the sequel to his Brooklyn, a book that had two posts on the blog: Dress Down Sunday: Brooklyn by Colm Toibin Dress Down Sunday: Sales and stockings back in 2015. I was astonished, by the way, to see that Brooklyn came out in 2009, I assumed it was much more recent than that. Toibin certainly gave it some space before the followup… The book gets going fast: Eilish has been married many years to Tony, they have two children, and live on Long Island. It is one traditional extended family: their house is in a cul-de-sac where the other houses belong to his parents and siblings. One day a man turns up to talk to Eilis. His wife has been having an affair with Tony, she is pregnant, and the wronged husband intends to dump the baby on their doorstep when it is born. This is p4: setup complete. Eilis is furious, says she will never accept the baby. She is even more furious when she realizes that the Italian family, while not impressed with…