In Brooklyn (Scribner, $15), Irish novelist Colm Tóibín quietly, but with rising intensity, tells the coming-of-age story of a rather plain Irish girl. Eilis attains adulthood in the 1950s, a time of spiking unemployment, and her colorful older sister arranges for her to emigrate to a close-knit Irish community in Brooklyn. Once there, Eilis experiences terrible homesickness, but eventually falls in love with an outgoing immigrant Italian plumber. After a trip back to her Irish parish and the sudden appearance of a conventional, old-world suitor, Eilis must choose, not only with her heart but also in keeping with her nagging sense of family responsibility, between her tremendously likeable Italian and the Irish suitor from her childhood. Tóibín masterfully builds the emotional pitch so that readers come to care deeply abouts Eilis’s decision.
