Colm Tóibín has said he “broke all my own rules” when he decided to write Long Island. 

The novel picks up after his hugely successful book Brooklyn, which tells the story of Eilis Lacey, a young woman from County Wexford who emigrates to the United States in the 1950s. 

In America, she secretly marries Italian American Tony Fiorello but the tragic and sudden death of her sister brings her back to Ireland. 

At home, romance begins to blossom between her and local barman Jim Farrell before she eventually returns to New York and her husband. 

For years, Mr Tóibín thought that was the end of Eilis’s story. 

“I never planned to write a sequel,” he told The Pat Kenny Show. 

“I left it the way it was, I thought that was enough and then an idea came into my head about three years ago and it was for the opening of a book - but with the same characters. 

“So, I wrote it and I broke all my own rules.” 

After the huge success of the novel, Brooklyn was turned into a film starring Saoirse Ronan as Eilis. 

Domhnall Gleeson portrayed Jim and Mr Tóibín realised there was far more to the character than even he knew when he wrote him. 

“He’s just an ordinary Irishman who wants a quiet life - and he falls in love,” he said. 

“Domhnall Gleeson plays him with a sort of depth, he gave him a sort of light and I didn’t see that before. 

“So, that really helped with this book, having had that actor perform it for me so I could see it embodied.” 

Although Long Island begins in America, Eilis decides to return to Ireland for a summer visit for mother’s 80th birthday. 

It was, Mr Tóibín said, a conscious choice to set the novel in the Wexford of the 1970s as he feared not quite getting the America dialect right. 

“I could try but I would get a word wrong, I would get a tone wrong,” he said. 

“I would take it from the movies rather than from life. 

“Whereas if I take her back to Enniscorthy - especially the summer of 1976 - I had a real idea of how three generations of people spoke.” 

Long Island was released on May 23rd.

Main image: Saoirse Ronan as Eilis. Picture by: Alamy.com