Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Sample

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Long Island

By: Colm Tóibín
Narrated by: Jessie Buckley
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
activate_samplebutton_t1

Listeners also enjoyed...

Brooklyn cover art
Long Island cover art
The Country Girls cover art
Abide with Me cover art
Who Killed Una Lynskey? cover art
The Covenant of Water cover art
When God Was a Rabbit cover art
Poor cover art

Summary

Read by Olivier Award winner and Oscar nominee, Jessie Buckley, and featuring an exclusive audio Q&A.

'Heartbreak, wistfulness, cracking dialogue . . . This is Tóibín at his best' - The Times
'A masterful novel full of longing and regret . . . Intensely moving and yet full of restraint' - Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain

OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK
AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4


Long Island is Colm Tóibín’s masterpiece: an exquisite, exhilarating audiobook that asks whether it is possible to truly return to the past and renew the great love that seemed gone forever. The sequel to Colm Tóibín's prize-winning, bestselling novel Brooklyn.

A man with an Irish accent knocks on Eilis Fiorello’s door on Long Island and in that moment everything changes. Eilis and Tony have built a secure, happy life here since leaving Brooklyn - perhaps a little stifled by the in-laws so close, but twenty years married and with two children looking towards a good future.

And yet this stranger will reveal something that will make Eilis question the life she has created. For the first time in years she suddenly feels very far from home and the revelation will see her turn towards Ireland once again. Back to her mother. Back to the town and the people she had chosen to leave behind. Did she make the wrong choice marrying Tony all those years ago? Is it too late now to take a different path?

©2024 Colm Tóibín (P)2024 Macmillan Publishers International Limited

Critic reviews

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)
A brilliant novel . . . it is beautifully crafted and makes for a riveting, wonderful read (Elizabeth Strout)
Heartbreak, wistfulness, cracking dialogue . . . This is Tóibín at his best (Robbie Millen)
Morally and pscyhologically meaty . . . Engrossing, truthful and humane, [Long Island] is a magnificent achievement (Johanna Thomas-Corr)
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 Wild Houses)

One of Buckley's narrating gifts is her ability to project Lacey's silences. She allows intimate conversations to unfold with quiet immediacy. The result is a performance that fits perfectly the humanity of Tóibín's cast. It is so winning and full of depth that the most evocative passages stand alone as their own moments. Listeners can't help but be drawn close. - AudioFile

What listeners say about Long Island

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    282
  • 4 Stars
    55
  • 3 Stars
    26
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    10
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    306
  • 4 Stars
    35
  • 3 Stars
    16
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    7
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    260
  • 4 Stars
    60
  • 3 Stars
    27
  • 2 Stars
    11
  • 1 Stars
    11

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A rich, absorbing and memorable story.

This was a marvellously rich and absorbing story. Full of diverse and believable characters whose lives dissect, transform and alter the course of others around them.
The narration was so perfect! The characters came alive through the mastery of the various accents and the capturing of individual personalities. The pace was also perfect and I felt I was really there alongside every character as they appeared.

A huge thank you to the author and narrator for such mastery. Outstanding!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Perfect prose & divine narration

I was in love with every character
The story unfolded so gently and then came the perfect ending…
Genius

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Irish characters and the complexity of them

A beautiful book, so well narrated, a love story which grips you to the end but also humorous and intense.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent story, good narration (but several mispronounciations...)

Colm Toibín has done it again with a worthy sequel to the excellent Brooklyn. Heart-achingly and brilliantly written, full of false starts, secrets, histories, commitments, decisions deferred - brutal, sad and wonderful. I'm from the area in a Ireland it depicts and it perfectly evokes the small town pettiness and desperation of 70s rural-ish Ireland. Jesse Buckley's narration is good but there are far too many mispronounciations of placenames, and the accents are often just not appropriate to the locality. Some placenames are almost unrecognisable... How is this possible? A frustration that did get in my way while otherwise enjoying this excellent book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant narration by Jessie Buckley

Completely immersed in this human story by Jessie Buckley’s performance. I thought I was listening to all the characters. Audiobooks at their best.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Jessie Buckley brings all of these people to life!

I could write essays but the book is a masterpiece on its own but could not imagine it so well as the reading provides the whole! The agony of leaving a home for so long and still being discombobulated by how little it has changed but she has is so well shown without ever being said. There is such humour but also pathos on every page and I still find myself wondering if it could all have been different- and better (or worse)! That is life! Brilliant.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

There has to be a third book

Although Long Island stands on its own as a story it is really a sequel to Brooklyn, a book I previously read.
Jessie Buckley is superb at bringing so many characters together through her knowledge and use of, not only, south east Irish accents, but the use of New York accents too. The character I was most disappointed with was Jim Farrell - read it and tell me if you felt the same!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Relationships.

I love Colm Tòibìn writing . It is so lyrical and descriptive . All his characters are so well drawn and believable that you feel you know them and so can relate to them.
A wonderful read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant 👏

I didn’t think this would be as good as Brooklyn but I was so wrong. It was so good I couldn’t stop listening and wanted more when I finished. Loved it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of the best audible listens ever!

Colm Toibin is a master and this is such a wonderful book. It was absolute genius to get Jessie Buckley to do the narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!