Post WWII: Eilis, a young woman from Ireland, is sent to an Irish community in Brooklyn to work in a shop and take bookkeeping classes. When she becomes involved with a guy who loves her, she has to choose between starting a new life with him or taking her bookkeeping skills back to Ireland and settling down near her mother. 
 I got very into Eilis's life, especially once she got to America. Good writing. Perceptively direct, it reveals the romantic parts of life beautifully. 
 Some reviewers say they don't believe that Eilis would go back to Ireland and act the way she did, but to them I say, haven't you ever heard of "out of sight, out of mind?" Haven't you ever experienced it? She was across the ocean from her guy, come on. Home and the stuff of our youth are sometimes more real than the present. I loved the ending. Best book of 2009, in my opinion.