Brooklyn

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.

The most compelling and moving portrait of a young woman I have read in a long time (Zoë Heller Guardian, Books of the Year)

A work of such skill, understatement and sly jewelled merriment could haunt your life (Ali Smith TLS, Books of the Year)

Suffused with humane depth, funny, affecting, deftly plotted . . . a novel of magnificent accomplishment (Peter Kemp Sunday Times, Novel of the Year)