Colm Tóibín’s sixth novel Brooklyn (2009) is set in Ireland and Brooklyn in the early 1950s. It follows Eilis Lacey who, like so many Irish at the time, leaves her family and life in small-town Ireland to escape the dismal Irish post-war economy and seek work and new possibilities elsewhere. In Brooklyn, Eilis finds a job in a department store on Fulton Street, night classes at Brooklyn College, and love at a parish dance. She also encounters changing demographics and social mores. As she is settling into her new life and imagining a future with Tony and his big Italian family, news from Ireland calls her home and threatens to upend her life yet again.
Colm Tóibín is noted as “his generation’s most gifted writer of love’s complicated, contradictory power” by the Los Angeles Times. Brooklyn is a quiet novel about an ordinary woman, but “Tóibín's gift is to demonstrate how extraordinary the mundane can be” (Sam Jordison, The Guardian).
The Ireland Semester book club is hosted by Missouri Southern’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society.
Meeting times:
6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023
Bookhouse Cinema, 715 E. Broadway
Admission: free
7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023
(Book signings at 6:30 and immediately following)
Taylor Performing Arts Center
Zoom Link: An Evening with Colm Toibin
Admission: free
Check out the book and movie from Spiva Library's collection!
Brooklyn (Overdrive ebook) by
Colm Tóibín's New York Times bestselling novel--now an acclaimed film starring Saoirse Ronan and Jim Broadbent nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture--is "a moving, deeply satisfying read" (Entertainment Weekly) about a young Irish immigrant in Brooklyn in the early 1950s. "One of the most unforgettable characters in contemporary literature" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), 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, 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, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future. Author "Colm Tóibín...is his generation's most gifted writer of love's complicated, contradictory power" (Los Angeles Times). "Written with mesmerizing power and skill" (The Boston Globe), Brooklyn is a "triumph...One of those magically quiet novels that sneak up on readers and capture their imaginations" (USA TODAY).
Siobhan Dowd’s groundbreaking novel, Bog Child (2008), is set in 1981 Ireland on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland during the heart of The Troubles. It follows a young man as he struggles to navigate both the border between childhood and adulthood, and the border between two torn Irelands during the 1981 Hunger Strike. This charming, witty, and inspiring novel covers everything from time travel, bog bodies, political turmoil, and the evils of finals as it explores themes like family, finding one’s place, disability, trust, and self-sacrifice.
Siobhan Dowd was an award-winning Irish writer and activist. Her YA novel Bog Child won the Carnegie Medal, was named Bisto Children's Book of the Year by Children’s Books Ireland, and made the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize shortlist.
The Ireland Semester book club is hosted by Missouri Southern’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society.
Meeting time:
6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023
Bookhouse Cinema, 715 E. Broadway Admission: free
Pick up a copy of the book in Webster Hall 337 or Kuhn Hall 203 while supplies last (students only).
Bog Child (Overdrive ebook) by
DIGGING FOR PEAT in the mountain with his Uncle Tally, Fergus finds the body of a child, and it looks like she’s been murdered. As Fergus tries to make sense of the mad world around him—his brother on hunger-strike in prison, his growing feelings for Cora, his parents arguing over the Troubles, and him in it up to the neck, blackmailed into acting as courier to God knows what—a little voice comes to him in his dreams, and the mystery of the bog child unfurls.
Bog Child is an astonishing novel exploring the sacrifices made in the name of peace, and the unflinching strength of the human spirit.
Bog Child (Overdrive audiobook) by
DIGGING FOR PEAT in the mountain with his Uncle Tally, Fergus finds the body of a child, and it looks like she’s been murdered. As Fergus tries to make sense of the mad world around him—his brother on hunger-strike in prison, his growing feelings for Cora, his parents arguing over the Troubles, and him in it up to the neck, blackmailed into acting as courier to God knows what—a little voice comes to him in his dreams, and the mystery of the bog child unfurls.
Bog Child is an astonishing novel exploring the sacrifices made in the name of peace, and the unflinching strength of the human spirit.
Small Things Like These, published in 2021, is an award-winning historical fiction novel by Claire Keegan, an Irish author known for her iconic short stories. Set in a small Irish town in 1985, the story follows Bill Furlong, a coal merchant, during the bustling weeks leading up to Christmas. While delivering to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery that compels him to confront his past and the silent complicity of a church-controlled town.
The book has received critical acclaim, with reviewers praising its moral storytelling, Keegan's powerful prose, and the depth of the characters. According to the Washington Post, “From the elements of this simple existence in an inconsequential town, Keegan has carved out a profoundly moving and universal story.... Small Things Like These reminds us that the real miracle in any season is courage.” This story won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction in 2022 and was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Booker Prize.
Join Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honor Society, as they bring this semester’s themed book clubs to a close with a wintery tale of bravery, love, and family.
“Always, Christmas brought out the best and the worst in people.”
― Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These
Meeting time:
6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023
Bookhouse Cinema, 715 E. Broadway
Admission: free
Pick up a copy of the book in Webster Hall 337 or Kuhn Hall 203 while supplies last (students only).
Check out the book from Spiva Library!
Small Things Like These by
Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize "A hypnotic and electrifying Irish tale that transcends country, transcends time." --Lily King, New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers Small Things Like These is award-winning author Claire Keegan's landmark new novel, a tale of one man's courage and a remarkable portrait of love and family It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church. Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.
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