2017 Knox Reads “Brooklyn” by Colm Toibin Topic of Adult Book Discussion

The 2017 Knox Reads! novel “Brooklyn” by best-selling author Colm Toibin, will be featured at the Adult Book Discussion on Tuesday, October 17, 7:00 p.m. at the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County, 201 N. Mulberry Street, Mount Vernon.

Elizabeth Dark, Associate Director of Programs at the Kenyon Review will lead a discussion on the book and Book Discussion led by Elizabeth Dark, Associate Director of Programs at the Kenyon Review. The works of Toibin, who is the recipient of the 2017 Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement. Toibin will give the keynote address for the Kenyon Review Literary Festival on November 11, at Kenyon College, Gambier.

Toibin’s sixth novel, “Brooklyn” is set in Brooklyn and Ireland in the early 1950s, when one young woman crosses the ocean to make a new life for herself.

Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the hard years following World War Two. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America — to live and work in a Brooklyn neighborhood “just like Ireland” — she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind.

Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, who loves the Dodgers and his big Italian family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love with Tony, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future.

Knox Reads! is a community-reading event celebrating the work of one chosen author each fall. The program is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Copies of the book are available at library locations at Mount Vernon, Gambier, Danville, and Fredericktown or can be purchased at area bookstores.

For more information, call the main library at 740-392-2665, visit www.knox.net or email communityrelations@knox.net.