A quiet, precise story of emigration, homesickness and choice, it asks where a person truly belongs.
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín is a novel set for IGCSE and International GCSE Literature (Cambridge International 0475). The board decides the set texts and the years they are examined, and your school confirms them. Our teachers teach whichever text your child sits.
What it is
Eilis lives with her mother and sister Rose in Enniscorthy, where work for a young woman is scarce. With help from an Irish priest in New York, she crosses the Atlantic to a boarding house and a job in a department store. Lonely at first, she settles into new routines, studies bookkeeping at night and meets Tony, a warm, hard-working young man whose family is Italian-American.
When a family tragedy calls her back to Ireland, the comfort of the old life tempts her, and she meets a new prospect who might keep her there. Eilis must decide which life is truly hers, and the novel's ending leaves her carrying the weight of both.
Themes and ideas to track
Emigration and homesickness
The novel captures the ache of leaving, the sea journey, the first loneliness and the slow growth of attachment to a new place. Tóibín shows emigration as an ordinary, life-changing experience for many.
Identity and belonging
Eilis is changed by her time away, and returning home shows how far. The question of where she belongs stays open until the end.
Duty, family and independence
Her family's expectations, especially her mother's, pull one way, while her wish for a self-directed life pulls another. The book weighs loyalty against growth.
Women's choices and constraints
Opportunities for women in 1950s Ireland and America are limited, and Eilis moves within narrow bounds. Her cautious choices carry great consequence.
How the writer builds it
Tóibín writes in a restrained, third-person style, reporting Eilis's actions and observations with little overt commentary. Her passivity at first is deliberate, and readers infer emotion from what is left unsaid. Short, plain sentences and attention to routine detail create a convincing historical world.
The structure follows her journey through departure, settling in, interruption and decision, with the return to Ireland creating a mirror of earlier scenes. Notice how silence, letters and everyday objects carry feeling.
How to write about it in the exam
Because Tóibín's prose is plain and understated, show that you can read what is implied: choose a quiet moment and explain what the restraint reveals. Track Eilis's development across the novel rather than describing each section in sequence.
Compare the way Ireland and Brooklyn are described to explore belonging. Keep references short and exact, and always connect technique to the writer's intended effect on the reader.
Studying Brooklyn? The paid trial lesson can start with a key moment from the text.
An exam-style question to practise
How does Tóibín present Eilis's experience of leaving home?
Plan three points before you write, with a short quotation for each. Then check your plan against the mark scheme section below.
More question angles
- Explore the ways Tóibín presents the pull between two places in Brooklyn.
- How does Tóibín use Eilis's relationships to develop the novel's ideas?
- Discuss how Tóibín presents the choices open to women in the novel.
How this maps to the mark scheme
Examiners mark Literature answers against assessment objectives. These are the skills the paper rewards. For Cambridge International 0475, the objectives are summarised on our qualification page.
- AO1: Show detailed knowledge of the content of literary texts in the three main forms (drama, poetry and prose), supported by reference to the text.
- AO2: Understand the meanings of literary texts and their contexts, and explore texts beyond surface meanings to show deeper awareness of ideas and attitudes.
- AO3: Recognise and appreciate ways in which writers use language, structure and form to create and shape meanings and effects.
- AO4: Communicate a sensitive and informed personal response to literary texts.
- The four assessment objectives carry equal weight, about 25% each.
For Brooklyn, build your argument around “Emigration and homesickness” and “Identity and belonging”. Support each point with a short quotation. Then analyse the writer's method, using the section above.
Keep context about Colm Tóibín brief and tied to the words on the page.
Read the text alongside these notes. This page is our own analysis and original teaching material. We quote at most a short attributed phrase where a point needs it, so keep your copy of the novel open as you read.
Where to go next
Plan your essay with our guide to planning a literature essay, then see a worked answer in our literature essay structure model response. Browse more set-text notes or read about Literature in English tuition.
When you have written an answer on Brooklyn, a paid one-hour trial lesson lets the teacher who would continue mark it with you.