Colm Tóibín’s novel Brooklyn is a tale of two shores with a heart strung between. Eilis is the younger daughter of a widow in 1950s Enniscorthy, County Wexford. Work is scarce so when Father Flood engineers a passage to New York and accommodation and employment, Eilis must take the opportunity. It is a decision almost made for her (as many others will appear to be) but that does not make the yearning for home any easier.Brooklyn is a subtle yet devastating novel of confined ambitions and burgeoning love. Tóibín’s story steals up on you: for all the mounting atmosphere, there is not much event and then, suddenly, you are caught in the vice of Eilis’ predicament. It is true and heartrending, yet without melodrama.But films rarely get by on such