In this quiet coming-of-age story, set just after the second World War, a young girl from Ireland's County Wexford is offered the opportunity to travel to America to settle in a a Brooklyn neighborhood that's "just like Ireland," with the assurance of an education and a good job. She had no intention of leaving home, but can't say this aloud, and so she goes. A poignant novel with homesickness at its heart, reminiscent of Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

From the publisher: "In Ireland, a man of reason is drawn to a true mystery older than the Pyramids and Stonehenge in this enthralling story about ethereal secrets. During the winter solstice, on the shortest day and longest night of the year, the ancient burial chamber at Newgrange is empowered. Its mystifying source is a haunting tale told by locals. Professor O’Kelly believes an archaeologist’s job is to make known only what can be proved. He is undeterred by ghost stories, idle speculation, and caution. Much to the chagrin of the living souls in County Meath. As well as those entombed in the sacred darkness of Newgrange itself. They’re determined to protect the secret of the light, guarded for more than five thousand years. And they know O’Kelly is coming for it."

Several of Tóibín's works put fresh spins on classical tales. More loosely inspired by The Oresteian Trilogy than a strict retelling, this narrative follows King Agamemnon three years after he ordered his daughter to be sacrificed in order to win the Trojan War, and then went off to war himself. His wife Queen Clytemnestra has spent that time plotting his murder, and his daughter and son have their own decisions to make. Longing, betrayal, revenge—this story has it all.

After reading and loving 2024 Summer Reading Guide pick Long Island and its 2009 companion Brooklyn this year, I was eager to read more Tóibín and landed on this 2021 biographical novel based on the life of Thomas Mann. My timing was serendipitous, as I happened to pick this up not long after we returned from our family trip to Germany and it was a delight to see so many of the cities we visited referenced on the page. Despite being a German minor and having read some of his works in school, I knew little about Mann's life and found myself frequently googling and consulting my college texts to compare Tóibín's story with his source material. This was an often challenging and extremely sad work; I came away with it with a deepened appreciation for Tóibín's range. I listened to the audio version, narrated by Gunnar Cauthery.

In this wistful literary standalone set in the 1970s and 2024 Summer Reading Guide selection, Tóibín returns to his beloved character Eilis Lacey from his 2009 novel Brooklyn. Now in her forties with two teenage children, Irishwoman Eilis is still married to Tony, and still feels like an outsider amongst—and sometimes a prisoner in—his large Italian family. When a stranger appears at her door with a staggering revelation about her husband’s life and choices, Eilis finds herself at a crossroads in her life and marriage, and escapes from Long Island to her small Irish hometown after a decades-long absence to contemplate her future. The neighborhood dynamics are both utterly prosaic and heavy with meaning: this is the kind of book where a bit of gossip whispered by one neighbor to another makes you gasp aloud.