This month we decided to pick Colm Toibin, although never a winner of the Man Booker Prize, he was longlisted in 2009 with his current title Brooklyn, and has been shortlisted twice, in 1999 and 2004. A fantastic speaker, he was a highlight of this year's Festival.
 Brooklyn Synopsis
In a small town in the south-east of Ireland in the 1950s, Eilis Lacey is one among many of her generation who cannot find work at home. So when a job is offered in America, it is clear that she must go. Leaving her family and home, Eilis sets off to forge a new life for herself in Brooklyn. Young, homesick and alone, she gradually buries the pain of parting beneath the rhythms of a new life - days at the till in a large department store, night classes in Brooklyn College and Friday evenings on the dance floor of the parish hall - until she realizes that she has found a sort of happiness. But when tragic news summons her back to Ireland, and the constrictions of her old life unexpectedly give way to new possibilities, she finds herself facing a terrible choice: between love and happiness in the land where she belongs and the promises she must keep on the far side of the ocean.
Brooklyn is a tender story of great love and loss, and of the heartbreaking choice between personal freedom and duty. In the character of Eilis Lacey Colm Tóibín has created a remarkable heroine and in Brooklyn a novel of devastating emotional power.
 About the author
Colm Tóibín was born in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford in 1955 and educated at University College Dublin. He is the author of five novels: The South, (1990) winner of The Irish Times Literature Prize in 1991; The Heather Blazing, winner of the Encore Award for the best second novel in 1992; The Story of the Night (1997); The Blackwater Lightship (1999), shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize; and The Master (2004), shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and winner of the Los Angeles Times Novel of the Year and the Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger in France. Tóibín's books have been translated into twenty-five languages. (Courtesy of The Man Booker Prize Foundation)
What the papers say:
‘It is impossible to read Toibin without being moved, touched and finally changed.' Independent on Sunday
‘Toibin's genius is that it makes it impossible for us to walk away’ The New Yorker
Want to know more
Watch one of this year's Sydney Writers' Festival highlights - Colm Tóibín talking to Caroline Baum about his extensive and impressive career of writing.
Learn how to pronounce Colm's name, and hear him talk about the dangers and pleasures of appearing at festivals. Watch this short video of his Radio National breakfast interview from last month.
Watch a video of Colm describing the relationship between Brooklyn and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Read the reading group guide - courtesy of The Man Booker Prize.
Beware - these notes may contain plot spoilers.
Listen to an interview with Colm on ABC Radio National Late Night Live with Philip Adams.
Have your say..
Tell us what you think about Brooklyn. Did you like it? Could you relate to Eilis' story? Did you get a chance to hear Colm speak at this year's Sydney Writers' Festival? How does Colm represent ideas of home and dreams in Brooklyn?
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