Sophia Hillan

This pioneering anthology goes beyond awareness building to engage seriously with the societal prevalence of sexist abuse and domestic violence, and the legacies of that abuse and violence in the lives of survivors. Approaching difficult subject matter with candor, sensitivity, and grace, the volume is timely, and deeply moving.

This rewarding short fiction collection includes moving tales on the themes of sibling love and its vicissitudes. A child's precocious contemplation of war in Ireland and war in Germany promotes a disturbance in the imaginative lonely boy. A woman's playful New York adventure turns on a confrontation with external reality. A dramatic monologue from one of Jane Austen's bitter relatives is directed at the famous female writer. A deceptive, subversive intelligence emerges beneath the lightness and simplicity of the stories in this dazzling volume.

Marianne, Louise and Cassandra Knight were nieces of the great 19th century novelist who gave us Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. Jane knew the girls well, reading and sewing with them as they grew up, and they were often the subject of her witty letters. The Knight sisters went on to lead lives remarkably similar to those of Jane’s heroines, experiencing the pains of blighted love, the joy of patience rewarded, and the sorrow of losing their childhood home, but even Austen could not have imagined that they would find themselves in Donegal at a time when Ireland was riven with famine and war. May, Lou and Cass tells for the first time the story of the Knight Sisters and their extraordinary journey from the ordered world of Regency England to the turbulent upheaval of Northern Ireland, exploring Irish History and the heritage of the Austen family.

Since the 1960 publication of her first novel, ""The Country Girls"", award-winning Irish writer Edna O'Brien has been both celebrated and maligned. Praised for her lyrical prose and vivid female characters and attacked for her frank treatment of sexuality and alleged sensationalism, O'Brien and her work seem always to spawn controversy, including the past banning in Ireland of several of her works. O'Brien's attention to ""women's"" concerns such as sex, romance, marriage, and childbirth has often relegated her to critical neglect at best and, at worst, outright contempt. This essay collection promises to be a long overdue critical reevaluation and exciting rediscovery of her oeuvre. ""Wild Colonial Girl"" situates O'Brien in Irish contexts that allow for an appraisal of her significant contribution to a specifically Irish women's literary tradition while attesting to the potency of writing against patriarchal conventions. Each chapter's clear and detailed readings of O'Brien's fiction build a convincing case for her literary, political, and cultural importance, providing an invaluable critical guide for an enriched appreciation of O'Brien and her work.