O’Brien, Edna (1930-2024), was an Irish novelist and short-story writer. In her works, she explored such issues as loneliness and alienation among women. Several of her books have been banned in Ireland because of their frank discussions of sexual matters.
O’Brien established her reputation with her first novel, The Country Girls (1961). It was the first novel in a trilogy that also included The Lonely Girl (1962) and Girls in Their Married Bliss (1963). O’Brien’s other novels include Casualties of Peace (1966), Night (1972), Returning (1982), A Fanatic Heart (1982), The High Road (1988), House of Splendid Isolation (1994), The Light of Evening (2006), and The Little Red Chairs (2016). O’Brien based her novel Girl (2019) on the experiences of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls who were kidnapped in 2014 by Boko Haram, a terrorist organization based in Nigeria.
O’Brien’s short stories were collected in such volumes as Mrs. Reinhardt (1978), Lantern Slides (1990), Time and Tide (1992), and The Love Object (2015). She also wrote stage and television plays, film scripts, nonfiction works about Ireland, and the memoir Country Girl (2012).
O’Brien was born on Dec. 15, 1930, in Tuamgraney in County Clare, Ireland. She moved to England in 1958. She died on July 27, 2024.
