Colm Tóibín’s ‘masterpiece’ named Waterstones Irish Book of the Year 2024

Colm Tóibín’s Long Island (Picador), the follow-up to Brooklyn (Penguin), has been named Waterstones Irish Book of the Year.

Tóibín is the current Laureate for Irish Fiction and the author of 10 previous novels – three of which were nominated for the Booker Prize – as well two collections of stories and various works of non-fiction.

“I worked slowly and tentatively on Long Island,” he said. “I followed my instinct but I was never sure. So it makes a big difference now that this novel Long Island is Waterstones Irish Book of the Year. It cheers me up and makes me feel that maybe I did something right.”

Lily Keohane, Waterstones Irish commercial manager, added: “We’ve been spoiled for choice after yet another outstanding year of Irish writing, with new novels by Sally Rooney, Kevin Barry and Booker-longlisted Colin Barrett’s debut to name only a few. But the true standout of the year has to be Colm Tóibín’s masterpiece, Long Island.”

Keohane described the novel as “deceptively quiet” and “full of longing”, while Liam Caldwell from Waterstones Foyleside said that the “propulsive prose style in Tóibín’s sequel to Brooklyn pulls the reader in on page one with a tense situation and doesn’t let up until its breathtaking end.”