Colm Tóibín: ‘Ireland today is a much freer place’
The Irish author on how the sequel to his bestselling novel Brooklyn was inspired by the film, life in LA, and his thoughts on Trump’s victory
Born in 1955, Colm Tóibín has written short stories, poetry, plays, essays and even opera libretti. He remains best known as a novelist, garnering laurels including the International Dublin literary award and the David Cohen prize for literature, and being praised for his sheer range as well as a near-magical ability to capture all that goes unsaid in life. His greatest commercial success to date is Brooklyn (2009), which follows Eilis Lacey as she leaves her home town – and Tóibín’s own – of Enniscorthy, County Wexford, for greater opportunities in the US. It later became a film starring Saoirse Ronan. His 11th novel, Long Island, is the sequel he swore he’d never write, catching up with Eilis two decades on. Tóibín divides his time between Los Angeles and New York City, where he teaches English literature at Columbia University.
Long Island is on the shortlist for Waterstones book of the year, which must be nice…
It cheers you up. You work tentatively as a writer – you think this might work and that might work but you’re trying things. This is one of the ways where you feel that maybe you got something right.
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