BABEL: Colm Tóibín
Join Just Buffalo Literary Center for an evening with critically acclaimed, bestselling author Colm Tóibín.
In-Person Tickets Virtual Tickets Read Featured Artist Bio View the Digital Program
Long Island
OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2024 BY TIME MAGAZINE, THE NEW YORKER, WASHINGTON POST, VULTURE, GLAMOUR, FRESH AIR, NPR, THE GUARDIAN, THE ECONOMIST, THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, THE TIMES (London), and more
From the beloved, critically acclaimed, bestselling author Colm Tóibín comes a spectacularly moving novel featuring Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic heroine of Brooklyn, Tóibín’s most popular work in twenty years.
Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber and one of four Italian American brothers, all of whom live in neighboring houses on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island, with their wives and children and Tony’s parents, a huge extended family. It is the spring of 1976 and Eilis is now forty with two teenage children. Though her ties to Ireland remain stronger than those that hold her to her new land and home, she has not returned in decades.
One day, when Tony is at work an Irishman comes to the door asking for Eilis by name. He tells her that his wife is pregnant with Tony’s child and that when the baby is born, he will not raise it but instead deposit it on Eilis’s doorstep. It is what Eilis does—and what she refuses to do—in response to this stunning news that makes Tóibín’s novel so riveting and suspenseful.
Long Island is a gorgeous story “about a woman thrashing against the constraints of fate” (Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air). It is “a wonder, rich with yearning and regret” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis).
Individual BABEL Tickets
Individual BABEL event tickets include a ticket for in-person attendance to one of the four BABEL events at Kleinhans Music Hall, as well as a virtual link to view from home via Livestream. All tickets will be issued via the Kleinhans/BPO website for the 2025–2026 season.
- General Admission: $48 each
- General Admission with Library Card: $43 each
- VIP Patron: $115 each (includes catered pre-event reception attended by the featured author and reserved seating)
- Student: $15 each (must use a valid .edu email address to purchase, and present a valid Student ID at the event)
- Virtual Only: $35 each
NOTE: Currently, proof of COVID-19 vaccination is not required for entry to BABEL events. We will continue to monitor health & safety recommendations and communicate any changes or updates to ticketholders as necessary. Please note that we are unable to provide refunds for tickets.
Planning on Watching from Home?
- If you choose to watch from home instead of attending in-person, the virtual link will be sent to you from babel@justbuffalo.org.
- You must be signed up for the Just Buffalo Newsletter in order to receive the virtual link. (To sign up, use the form in the footer of the website.)
- Click here to purchase VIRTUAL ONLY TICKETS
- Thursday, October 16, 2025
- Expired!
- 7:30 pm
- 3 Symphony Circle, Buffalo, NY 14201
Featured Artist
-
Colm TóibínAuthorColm Tóibín Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island, an Oprah’s Book Club Pick; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; and Nora Webster; as well as two story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and was named the 2022–2024 Laureate for Irish Fiction by the Arts Council of Ireland. He was shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize. He was also awarded the Bodley Medal, the Würth Prize for European Literature, and the Prix Femina spécial for his body of work.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.