Irish America

Irish America

Edna O'Brien

Mother, Life, Landscape, and the Connection

By Patricia Harty
IA Newsletter, August 3, 2024

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Edna O'Brien returns to the world of The Country Girls in her book The Light of Evening, with the mother-daughter relationship as the main theme.    “A writer’s life is like an athlete’s life. You train every day of your life and even then it may not be as good as one had hoped,” says Edna O’Brien, who has written over 20 books. Her latest, The Light of Evening, tells the … [Read more...] about Mother, Life, Landscape, and the Connection

Edna O’Brien at the Lotos Club

By Rosemary Rogers, Contributor
June / July 2016

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On March 29, against the elegant backdrop of books and crystal, sat the elegant Edna O’Brien. Irish America’s editor and co-founder, Patricia Harty, co-hosts Ellen McCourt, Joe & Mary Lou Quinlan and PEN, the international writers’ association, joined together to celebrate O’Brien, one of our greatest living writers, and The Little Red Chairs, her new book. Guests convened … [Read more...] about Edna O’Brien at the Lotos Club

The Little Red Chairs:
A Novel by Edna O’Brien

By Rosemary Rogers, Contributor
April / May 2016

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Edna O’Brien’s acclaimed new novel, her first in a decade, is reviewed. Celts have always believed in an invisible spirit world running parallel to our visible world, a mystical universe that has given Irish storytellers a rich folklore of the supernatural. From this tradition comes the oft-told story (undoubtedly a cautionary tale for impressionable girls) of a handsome … [Read more...] about

The Little Red Chairs:
A Novel by Edna O’Brien

Country Girl

A memoir by Edna O'Brien
June / July 2013

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In this excerpt from her memoir,  Edna O’Brien returns to Ireland to build a house in which she hopes to avail of the “peace that passeth understanding,” only to find that even the best laid plans can go awry. Donegal It was to Donegal, in the most northwestern tip of Ireland, that in the 1990s I headed, in order to build a house. The very place names so rough and musical, the … [Read more...] about Country Girl

Country Girl – Edna O’Brien’s New Memoir

By Sheila Langan, Deputy Editor
April / May 2013

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Edna O’Brien has published the memoir she swore she’d never write. Readers will be very glad she did. "You can write and I will never forgive you,” said Ernest Gébler, Edna O’Brien’s then husband, after reading her manuscript for The Country Girls. Published in 1960, O’Brien’s honest and intimate portrayal of two young women in the Ireland she had left behind was a … [Read more...] about Country Girl – Edna O’Brien’s New Memoir