Long Island

1. General Impressions

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

• In light of the novel’s title, were you surprised that the majority of Long Island takes place in Ireland? What was your original response to this disparity?
• How did you respond to the novel’s inciting event: that Tony Fiorello is having a child with another woman? What emotions did this revelation elicit for you as a reader, and why?
• How did your experience reading Long Island compare to your experience reading Coim Tóibín’s other novels? Alternatively, how does Long Island compare to other Irish authors’ work (for example: Claire Keegan, Donal Ryan, and Paul Lynch)? 

2. Personal Reflection and Connection

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

• Eilis Fiorello immediately refuses to be a part of Tony’s new child’s life. How did you react to how she handles this issue? Would you have taken a different approach?
• Eilis, Jim Farell, and Nancy Sheridan are all caught in internal conflicts. Whose personal circumstances did you find most relatable or believable, and why?
• On Long Island and in Enniscorthy, Eilis is involved in small communities. How do you think you would handle each of these spaces? Do you think Eilis navigates them well?
• Eilis, Jim, and Nancy are all asking questions about their futures. Whose future do you think is most tenuous? Who do you think has the most at stake in this love triangle?
• Loneliness is a key theme in all three central characters’ stories. To what extent do you think feelings of isolation are universal—a part of the human condition? Where do you think those feelings come from?

3. Societal and Cultural Context

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

• Long Island is the sequel to Brooklyn, a novel that traces Eilis’s original immigration to America. In what ways does Long Island expound upon the immigrant experience in the US? 
• The novel is set in the mid-1970s. How might this historical backdrop influence the way that Eilis, Jim, and Nancy think about sex, marriage, and relationships? 

4. Literary Analysis

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

• The novel is written from the third-person point of view, and the narrator offers access to Eilis’s, Jim’s, and Nancy’s interiorities. How did you interpret this formal choice? Would the novel be different if it were written strictly from Eilis’s point of view?
• Do you think Eilis’s and Nancy’s characters are equally dimensional and dynamic? How would you describe each of their character arcs? How do their decisions relate to their needs and wants?
• The narrative makes occasional gestures to the characters’ past lives. How do these flashbacks relate to the characters’ identities in the narrative present? 
• What symbolic significance does the Cush setting have for Eilis’s and Jim’s characters? Consider what they do and how they behave in this setting. Additionally, what do you think the seaside geography might imply about the characters’ relationship and internal experiences?

5. Creative Engagement

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

• Long Island’s prequel, Brooklyn, was adapted into a film in 2015. If Long Island were adapted, how would you compress or contract time in a way that’s similar or different to the Brooklyn adaptation? Are there scenes you’d expand or omit? Whom would you cast, and whom would you choose to direct?
• The novel ends on an ambiguous note. Imagine a third book that continues the story. What do you think happens the morning after Jim, Nancy, and Eilis’s confrontations? Do you think that Jim goes after Eilis or talks to Nancy? How would the rest of the plot unfold?

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