It is Enniscorthy in the southeast of Ireland in the early 1950s. Eilis Lacey is one among many of her generation who cannot find work at home. Thus when a job is offered in America, it is clear to everyone that she must go. Leaving her family and country, Eilis heads for unfamiliar Brooklyn, and to a crowded boarding house where the landlady’s intense scrutiny and the small jealousies of her fellow residents only deepen her isolation.

Slowly, however, the pain of parting is buried beneath the rhythms of her new life — until she begins to realize that she has found a sort of happiness. As she falls in love, news comes from home that forces her back to Enniscorthy, not to the constrictions of her old life, but to new possibilities which conflict deeply with the life she has left behind in Brooklyn.

In the quiet character of Eilis Lacey, Colm Tóibín has created one of fiction’s most memorable heroines and in Brooklyn , a luminous novel of devastating power. Tóibín demonstrates once again his astonishing range and that he is a true master of nuanced prose, emotional depth, and narrative virtuosity.

科爾姆·托賓是具有國際聲譽的愛爾蘭當代著名作傢，兩部長篇小說《黑水燈塔船》、《大師》先後入圍布剋奬決選名單，最新長篇小說《布魯剋林》也入圍2009年度布剋奬，並獲得2009年科斯塔年度小說奬。

托賓1955年生於愛爾蘭東南部一個積極投身愛爾蘭獨立運動的傢庭。他畢業於都柏林大學，主修曆史和英文。1975年大學畢業後即赴巴塞羅那，在那裏以教授英語為生。1978年迴到愛爾蘭後，他重迴母校攻讀碩士學位，但因忙於新聞寫作工作而沒有完成論文。 二十世紀八十年代，托賓曾投身新聞業，擔任愛爾蘭新聞月刊《麥吉爾》編輯，並遊曆南美。

自1990年發錶處女作小說《南方》以來，托賓已齣版六部長篇小說、一部短篇小說集、一部戲劇和多部遊記、散文集等非虛構作品，主編《企鵝版愛爾蘭小說選》。

托賓的作品主要描寫愛爾蘭社會、移居他鄉者的生活、個人身份與性取嚮的探索與堅持等。托賓文筆優雅恬淡，內斂含蓄，被譽為“英語文學中的語言大師”。

托賓目前任教於美國普林斯頓大學，在美國、愛爾蘭生活。