Novelist and Short Story Writer
Edna O’Brien was born on December 15, 1930, in Tuamgraney, County Clare. She was educated at the National School in Scariff, the Convent of Mercy at Loughrea, and the Pharmaceutical College in Dublin. She married Ernest Gebler in 1951, but the marriage was dissolved in 1964. She has two sons, Carlos and Sasha.
County Clare remains so much in O’Brien’s veins that the people there continue to find themselves in her works; of these a dominant figure has been a mother or several mothers (Mrs. O’Brien died in spring 1977). The content of her work has also been coloured by Irish lore and history and by distinctive geographic features such as Druids’ circles and the Holy island (Inis Cealtra) in Lough Derg. In 1959 O’Brien moved to London, where she maintains residence, but she often returns to Ireland.
She has written many books including Love Object, August is a Wicked Month, Casualties of Peace, The Country Girls, The Dazzle, Down by the River, The Expedition, Girl with Green Eyes, Girls in their Married Bliss, The High Road, House of Splendid Isolation, Johnny I hardly knew you, The Lonely Girl, Love Object, Night, A Pagan Place, Time and Tide, Vanishing Ireland and Zee and Co.
