Edna O'Brien

With her inimitable gift for describing the workings of the heart and mind, Edna O'Brien introduces us to a vivid new cast of restless, searching people who-whether in the Irish countryside or London or New York-remind us of our own humanity. In Send My Roots Rain, Miss Gilhooley, a librarian, waits in the lobby of a posh Dublin hotel-expecting to meet a celebrated poet while reflecting on the great love who disappointed her. The Irish workers of The Shovel Kings have pipe dreams of becoming millionaires in London, but long for their quickly changing homeland-exiles in both places. Green Georgette is a searing anatomy of class, through the eyes of a little girl; Old Wounds illuminates the importance of family and memory in old age. In language that is always bold and vital, Edna O'Brien pays tribute to the universal forces that rule our lives.

In these selections from twenty years of her best short fiction, Edna O'Brien's A Fanatic Heart pulls the reader into a woman's experience. Her stories portray a young Irish girl's view of obsessive love and its often wrenching pain, while tales of contemporary life show women who open themselves to sexuality, to disappointment, to madness. Throughout, there is always O'Brien's voice--wondrous, despairing, moving--examining passionate subjects that lay bare the desire and needs that can be hidden in a woman's heart.

An evocative play about Virginia Woolf's life and relationships with her husband, Leonard, and her lover, Vita Sackville-West.

'The taboo-breaking, the fabulous prose-there's no one like Edna O'Brien.' Anne Enright 'Surprising and beautiful and courageous . . . A beacon.' Megan Nolan We want to live. Drink gin. Squeeze into the front of big cars and drive up outside big hotels. We want to go places. Caithleen is a romantic: she dreams of finding a handsome man who will sweep her away and look after her. Her friend Baba thinks this makes her a right-looking eejit. What she wants is money and glamour. Life. As much of it as she can get. But neither love nor excitement seem possible in their small village, or their convent school. And when they finally make it to Dublin, they find that home isn't as easy to escape as they thought. This is the first novel in Edna O'Brien's trilogy which revolutionised Irish literature in the 1960s. Banned by the authorities as 'indecent' and burned by the clergy, they were notorious for their frank portrayal of sexual desire: but scandal turned to fame, and made this glorious coming-of-age tale an instant classic that inspires and delights readers to this day.

The spruces are so close together that the barks are a sable-brown. Michael O'Kane is known as the 'Kinderschrek', the 'child scarer'. He haunts Cloosh Wood in western Ireland. As a boy he lost his mother and by the age of ten he was in prison. Now he seeks sacrificial victims to satisfy his delusional fantasies: a beautiful young mother, her infant son and a trusting priest, who are enticed into the forest. Inspired by a real triple homicide, this novel is a 'tour de force of finely restrained fury' (Newsday).

Such is the wrath of the mothers, such is the cry of the mothers, such is the lamentation of the mothers. Ageing Dilly Macready lies in her hospital bed in Dublin, awaiting a final visit from her estranged daughter, Eleanora, an author who fled rural Ireland years before, after her sensual first novel caused a local scandal. Through memories and journals, both mother and daughter find themselves reliving the strains, disagreements, expectations and disappointments of their complicated relationship, ultimately finding that their enduring connection remains powerful and true. This is a late novel by O'Brien at the height of her powers, in which she delves deep into the beautiful but intense relationship that exists between mothers and daughters.

I love fire. Fire is the colour of genius.In this audacious new work, Edna O'Brien gives voice to the women who were central to the life of James Joyce.'James Joyce had been my ultimate hero for sixty years, but to paint the canvas of his life was daunting. Therefore I decided to depict him as seen by the key figures in his life - Mother, Wife, Mistress of a fleeting moment, his patron Harriet Weaver and his beloved Daughter Lucia, of whom he said her mind was but a transparent leaf away from his.'Written to celebrate the centenary of Ulysses, Joyce's Women premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in September 2022. This revised edition includes changes made by the author during rehearsals and previews of the play's first production.

Love and tragedy converge in a seaside town in The High Road, a newly reissued novel from Edna O'Brien, the author of Girl and "one of the most celebrated writers in the English language" (NPR's Weekend Edition) This richly peopled, compellingly readable novel explores the many lives of women--as mystic, mother, daughter, and lover. There is Iris, with her "winsome wonsome" ways, no longer young; there is Charlotte, a troubled debutante who has fled from society; and there is the narrator, Anna, who feels that her emotional life has folded until she meets a young Spanish girl named Catalina. Set in a seaside enclave on the Mediterranean coast, The High Road is a passionate account of lost love and the return to loving, where currents of regret and loneliness clash with a fiery instinct for survival.

House of Splendid Isolation is a newly reissued novel from Edna O'Brien, the author of Girl--"one of the most celebrated writers in the English language" (NPR's Weekend Edition). The heartbreaking dilemmas and the noble and bloody history of Ireland come vividly to life in the tale of Josie, a widow living in a solitary house outside an Irish village, whose home becomes the hideout of an IRA terrorist.

Down by the River is a newly reissued novel from Edna O'Brien, the author of Girl--"one of the most celebrated writers in the English language" (NPR's Weekend Edition). Set in the author's native Ireland, a powerful and passionate novel about a young girl who becomes pregnant by her father--a situation made worse when it becomes fodder for the gossip mill of church, state, and the town square.

”Med ett helt skrivarliv i kroppen, har hon kraft nog i armarna att föra några av dem in till kanten och förvandla deras vittnesmål till romankonst.”P1 Kulturnytt”Edna O’Brien trampar aldrig fel och använder inte ett ord för mycket, men väjer heller inte för det svåra utan fångar mörkret med få, strama bilder; en påle som mäter gropens djup, en skottkärra full med sten.”SVT Kulturnyheterna”Edna O’Brien låter en enda flicka gestalta många flickors berättelser som hon har tagit del av på sina resor i landet, och hon har skapat en skakande bladvändare som känns helt trovärdig. […] En magisk och också faktiskt poetiskt vacker berättelse som gör att man orkar ta del av Maryams berättelse, som jag släpper med saknad.”Arbetaren”den är på samma gång en roman långt utanför hennes vanliga kretsar och samtidigt omisskänneligt O’Briensk.”Dagens NyheterFlickan är i skolan när soldater från Boko Haram stormar in och kidnappar henne och hennes kamrater. De förs till ett läger, gifts bort och lever under ständiga dödshot från unga män som nu är deras makar. Trots att hon fortfarande bara är en flicka tvingas hon snart lära sig att överleva som kvinna med ett eget barn. Världen runt henne är förtärd av våld, i det helvete som läg­ret utgör. När hon tror att allt är över, öppnar sig plötslig en chans att fly. Hon ger sig av i skydd av natten, ut i en värld som helst av allt bara vill låtsas om att hon inte finns.Hur kan vi närma oss den barbarism som finns omkring oss? Hur är det möjligt att se ondskan och gå vidare?”Verket liknar emellanåt en dokumentär eller ett litterärt reportage. Gestaltningen av den olycka som drabbar Maryam och porträttet av henne görs däremot med litterära medel. Det hela är nödvändig men tung läsning.”Dala-demokraten

The final novel by the legendary Irish icon Edna O'Brien, author of The Country Girls.'The taboo-breaking, the fabulous prose - there's no one like Edna.' Anne Enright'Girl broke me in two: a hard and beautiful miracle.' Eimear McBride'An extraordinary act of imagination.' J.M. Coetzee 'Glittering energy . . . Exemplary.' Colm TóibínI was a girl once, but not any more . . .A young Nigerian woman, barely more than a girl herself, must learn to survive with a child of her own, in a world which seems entirely consumed by madness. As she navigates a landscape of terrors and trials, ruled by Boko Haram, can she find a place of safety within a society blinkered by mistrust and denial?'Astonishing.' New Statesman'Raw and transfixing.' Observer'A masterpiece.' Irish Independent'Mesmerising.' Sunday Times'Devastating and moving.' Daily Telegraph*Winner of the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2020; longlisted for the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction; shortlisted for the 2020 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction; shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize 2020*

One of Ireland's greatest contemporary writers turns her attention to one of the country's greatest novelists: James Joyce and his relationship with Nora Barnacle - in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the iconic classic ULYSSES.'Both Joyce and O'Brien have a gift for beauty distilled . . . a work of love'Daily Telegraph'Short, poetic and powerful'Irish Times It was June 10th, Barnacle Day. He saw her in Nassau Street and they stopped to talk. She thought his blue eyes were those of a Norseman. He was twenty-two, and she, Nora Barnacle, was twenty and employed as a chambermaid in Finn's Hotel. They agreed to meet on June 14th, outside No. 1 Merrion Square, the home of Sir William Wilde, but Nora did not turn up. After a dejected letter from Joyce they met on June 16th, a date which came to be immortalized in literature as Bloomsday.Edna O'Brien paints a miniature portrait of an artist, idealist, insurgent and filled with a secret loneliness. In Nora, he was to find accomplice, collaborator and muse. For all their sexual escalations, Joyce considered their relationship 'a kind of sacrament'. Their life was one of wandering, emotional upheaval and poverty. It was also one that was binding and mysterious, and defied all the mores of intimacy.In prose brimming with life and energy, Edna O'Brien resurrects a relationship of magnificent intensity on the page, and in doing so shows herself to be touched by the genius of the writer she loves above all others.

A newly reissued novel from the author of Girl, "one of the most celebrated writers in the English language" (NPR's Weekend Edition) "As her disturbing novel clearly reveals, Edna O'Brien possesses what Henry James called an imagination fordisaster... Time and Tide] is an anthology of heightened moments...never less than brilliantly expressed." --Joel Conarroe, The New York Times Book Review Time and Tide is a fragmented novel detailing the loves and catastrophes--and catastrophic loves--of Nell, an Irish woman trying to make a life for herself in the literary world of London. "A whimsical beauty who has swapped the suffocating narrowness of her native land for the loveless brutality of England" (The Independent), Nell is in flight from bitter, controlling, and small-minded parents, yet risks becoming just such a mother to her own sons. She seeks comfort and acceptance, yet finds death, drugs, and "an orgy of humiliation" (The New York Times Book Review). She seeks companionship, yet finds one after another predatory man: sadists, alcoholics, unscrupulous doctors, and even child molesters. Can Nell extract from the "the vast inhospitality of a creaking world" some measure of beauty and grace? The answer, of course, is yes--but at the price of many illusions.

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction "Superb... Lantern Slides] continues the quest for origin and explanation that has preoccupied O'Brien...Her stories unearth the primeval feelings buried just below the surface of nostalgia, using memories to illuminate both what is ridiculous and what is heroic about passion." --David Leavitt, The New York Times Book Review "Her stories are brilliantly realized and often very funny...O'Brien is quite simply one of the finest short story writers of our time." --Joyce Carol Oates A newly reissued collection of stories from the author of Girl, "one of the most celebrated writers in the English language" (NPR's Weekend Edition) In twelve stories peopled with deeply etched characters, whom we come to know instantly and intimately, Lantern Slides reveals the wit and passion of a master of the short fiction form. Rich and humorous, full of struggle and boldness, these stories are a singular reflection of Edna O'Brien's artistry.

Edna O'Brien's beloved classics plunge us into the lives and loves of two girls in rural 1950s Ireland (with a new foreword by Eimear McBride).'The taboo-breaking, the fabulous prose - there's no one like Edna O'Brien.' Anne Enright'Surprising and beautiful and courageous .. A beacon.' Megan Nolan 'Brilliant and brave.' Ann Patchett'Glittering energy.' Colm Tóibín ONE OF THE BBC'S '100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD'Caithleen 'Kate' Brady and Bridget 'Baba' Brennan are growing up in a repressive Irish village after World War II. Kate is a romantic, looking for love; Baba is a reckless survivor. After being expelled from convent school, they dream of the bright lights of Dublin - and are rewarded with bad luck and bad sex; marry for the wrong reasons; but continue to fight the expectations forced upon 'girls' of every era to become brave new women.Edna O'Brien's debut novels revolutionised Irish literature in the 1960s. Banned by the authorities as 'indecent' and burned by the clergy, they were notorious for their frank portrayal of sexual desire: but scandal turned to fame, and made this glorious coming-of-age tale an instant classic that inspires and delights readers to this day.

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles.'The taboo-breaking, the fabulous prose - there's no one like Edna.' Anne Enright 'Surprising and beautiful and courageous .. A beacon.' Megan Nolan 'Brilliant and brave.' Ann Patchett 'Glittering energy.' Colm Tóibín An unnamed protagonist is on holiday with her new, much-married lover, in the company of the monstrously rich.'How long would she last? It would be uppermost in all their minds.'Each day, while the others are out at sea, she is taught to swim. Eventually, she will be expected to perform. The pressure mounts; it is only a matter of time before she snaps.Edna O'Brien crafts a quietly horrifying scene of eroticism and insecurity, and makes one woman's near-fatal discomfort stand for society's larger trap.Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.