1. An Unlooked for Offer

In the small town of Enniscorthy in the south east of Ireland in the early 1950s, Eilis Lacey is one among many of her generation who can find no work.

Her three brothers have already left to seek their fortunes in England - she and her sister Rose and her widowed mother are all that remain at home.

When a priest comes home from America for a holiday, he recognises both Eilis's plight - and her potential...

Colm Tóibín's masterful novel Brooklyn, a story of duty, love and a girl who crossed the ocean for a new life in New York.

Abridged in ten parts by Sally Marmion.

Read by Niamh Cusack.

Twice Booker-listed Toibin captures the immigrant's dislocation and a girl's yearnings.

Although Eilis will struggle to find her feet and begin a new life on the other side of the Atlantic, the shiny young country she has arrived in will start to seduce her. When a tragedy calls her home, she will return with the glow of America firmly surrounding her.

A love story and an exploration of personal choice and familial duty, Brooklyn is a tender, funny and compassionate portrait of the compromises made by those who must take a step into the unknown.

Producer: Di Speirs

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2009.