Colm Tóibín has recently announced that he is working on a sequel to his successful novel Brooklyn. The sequel called Long Island is set 20 years after the events of the acclaimed best-seller and will continue the story of heroine Eilis Lacey. Long Island will be published via Picador in May 2024.

The highly anticipated sequel finds Eilis Lacey living in the 1970s together with her husband Tony Fiorello and their children, now living in a house in Long Island. After receiving shocking news Lacey moves back to Ireland, to a world she thought she had long left behind.

We are thrilled to announce Colm Tóibín’s masterful new novel LONG ISLAND 📣

A novel of profound emotional resonance and enormous wit, it will reunite readers with Eilis Lacey, 20 years after the events of BROOKLYN 📖 https://t.co/0WDRkzMH1x pic.twitter.com/PoFevLEdrs

— Picador Books (@picadorbooks) March 28, 2023

Brooklyn was first published in 2009 and won several awards, including the Costa Novel Award in 2009. It was also nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award in 2011 and the Man Booker Prize in 2009.

Due to its success, the book was adapted for film by director John Crowley in 2015, earning critical acclaim and box-office success. The film further received three Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and for actor Saoirse Ronan Best Actress.

John Crowley and the #Brooklyn team on the #Oscars red carpet. @rtenews @rte_ten pic.twitter.com/JX3gA9LPc9

— Caitriona Perry (@CaitrionaPerry) February 29, 2016

Colm Tóibín is currently working as Mellon Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York, as well as Chancellor of Liverpool University. As an author, he prevously published the novels The Blackwater Lightship, The Master, and The Magician.

Picador Publisher Mary Mount considers him as one of the world‘s greatest writers and said that: "It is overwhelming to be reunited with the characters of that novel once again and to see them anew."

"This is a novel of profound emotional resonance and enormous wit, both qualities having long been hallmarks of Tóibín's writing. It is a huge thrill and privilege to be publishing this extraordinary new work which will be read by many readers for many decades to come," Mount continued.

Colm Tóibín - Credit: Barry Cronin

About one year ago,  the award-winning Tóibín already talked about a possible sequel in a Hot Press interview. When asked if there‘s a Brooklyn sequel in the making, the author answered:

“I was never going to do it. I promised I wouldn’t – I hate sequels – and then I got an idea. Walking down the street something occurred to me, and the minute it did, I was off. It’s not a sequel to the plot; it’s the same characters and something new happens. And that causes a lot of drama.”

The full Hot Press interview with Colm Tóibín about his author career and recent publications can be read here.