EVENT OVERVIEW: Colm Tóibín will present his new book, Long Island, on Monday, May 20, 2024 at 7:00 PM at The Unity Temple on The Plaza.
ABOUT THE NEW BOOK: Long Island
From the beloved, critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author comes a spectacularly moving and intense novel of secrecy, misunderstanding, and love, the story of Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic heroine of Brooklyn, Tóibín’s most popular work twenty years later.
Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber and one of four Italian American brothers, all of whom live in neighboring houses on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island, with their wives and children and Tony’s parents, a huge extended family that lives and works, eats and plays together. It is the spring of 1976 and Eilis, now in her forties with two teenage children, has no one to rely on in this still-new country. Though her ties to Ireland remain stronger than those that hold her to her new land and home, she has not returned in decades.
One day, when Tony is at his job and Eilis is in her home office doing her accounting, an Irishman comes to the door asking for her by name. He tells her that his wife is pregnant with Tony’s child and that when the baby is born, he will not raise it but instead deposit it on Eilis’s doorstep. It is what Eilis does—and what she refuses to do—in response to this stunning news that makes Tóibín’s novel so riveting.
Long Island is about longings unfulfilled, even unrecognized. The silences in Eilis’ life are thunderous and dangerous, and there’s no one more deft than Tóibín at giving them language. This is a gorgeous story of a woman alone in a marriage and the deepest bonds she rekindles on her return to the place and people she left behind, to ways of living and loving she thought she’d lost.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; The Testament of Mary; and Nora Webster; as well as two story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and has been named as the Laureate for Irish Fiction for 2022–2024 by the Arts Council of Ireland. Three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Tóibín lives in Dublin and New York.
EVENT DATE & TIME: Monday, May 20, 2024, at 7:00 PM
EVENT LOCATION: Unity Temple on The Plaza, Sanctuary, 707 W. 47th Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64112
ADMISSION PACKAGE: $32.00 (plus Eventbrite Ticket Fee) includes 1 Hardcover of Long Island, 1 Admission Reservation, and 1 Guest Admission Reservation. General Admission Seating.
EVENT FORMAT: Colm Tóibín will present his new book, Long Island and will discuss his new book, Long Island. The discussion will last approximately one hour.
PLEASE NOTE: Patrons will receive their autographed books as they arrive at this event.
DISCLAIMER: All author event sales are final and non-refundable. Eventbrite ticket fees are non-refundable.
