Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, 262 pages

I listened to Brooklyn as a playaway.  I saw the movie, which was very good and really wanted to read the book.  The audio was a great alternative when the book was checked out.  It was beautifully read with the Irish accents. Brooklyn follows young Irish immigrant Eilis Lacey as she makes her way from Ireland to Brooklyn in the 1950s for chance of a better life.  When she finds herself torn between her family in Ireland and her new life and love in Brooklyn, she is faced with a most difficult choice.

The Graves are Walking: The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish

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The Graves are Walking: The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish People 

by John Kelly

397 pages

This publication brings the Irish Potato Famine to life. The potato blight began in 1845, and continued into 1851. More than one million Irish peasants starved to death or died of disease.  Another million fled to Canada, America or English cities like Liverpool.  The author gives a clear picture of the inadequate British poor law polices that reshaped the Irish landscape. 

Songdogs, by Colum McCann

Songdogs, by Colum McCann, 224 pages

Conor Lyons is searching for his mother through his father's photos and through a road trip that follows their footsteps through Mexico, across America, and back to his birthplace of Ireland.  His father, once a vibrant young photographer, is now an aging man approaching his end, and provides little more than his photographs for Conor to discover what happened to his mother.  What Conor finds is not resolution, but certainly a sense of understanding.

This is beautifully written, and would make for an interesting book club selection.

Collusion by Stuart Neville

Collusion by Stuart Neville, 354 pages

The sequel to Neville's debut novel, The Ghosts of Belfast, does not disappoint.  An assassin is stalking Belfast and Detective Inspector Jack Lennon has to unravel a conspiracy that lead both into the police department and into his own troubled past.  Neville writes the Irish noir police procedural at its best.  This isn't a cozy mystery that will warm your heart.  It's one that keeps you turning the pages in hope that there is some redemption for Lennon somewhere.  If you like Ken Bruen, this book is for you.