Anthologies#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Women and Fiction |
1975 |
Buy |
| Arabian Days |
1977 |
Buy |
| Best for Winter |
1979 |
Buy |
| Winter’s Tales |
1980 |
Buy |
| Winter’s Tales 26 |
1981 |
Buy |
| Tales for the Telling |
1986 |
Buy |
| The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories |
1987 |
Buy |
| Women Writers at Work |
1989 |
Buy |
| Friendship |
1990 |
Buy |
| New Writing From Ireland |
1994 |
Buy |
| Mistresses of the Dark |
1998 |
Buy |
Collections#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Love Object |
1968 |
Buy |
| Three Dublin Plays |
1969 |
Buy |
| A Scandalous Woman And Other Stories |
1974 |
Buy |
| Collector’s Choice |
1978 |
Buy |
| A Rose in the Heart |
1979 |
Buy |
| A Fanatic Heart |
1984 |
Buy |
| Lantern Slides |
1990 |
Buy |
| Edna O’Brien Reader |
1994 |
Buy |
| Mrs. Reinhardt |
1996 |
Buy |
| Irish Revel |
1998 |
Buy |
| Returning |
1998 |
Buy |
| Triptych and Iphigenia |
2005 |
Buy |
| Saints and Sinners |
2011 |
Buy |
Non-Fiction#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Mother Ireland |
1976 |
Buy |
| James and Nora |
1981 |
Buy |
| Vanishing Ireland |
1987 |
Buy |
| Byron in Love |
2009 |
Buy |
| Country Girl |
2012 |
Buy |
Penguin Lives Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Abraham Lincoln |
1960 |
Buy |
| Mao Zedong: A Life |
1999 |
Buy |
| Mozart: A Life |
1999 |
Buy |
| Marcel Proust |
1999 |
Buy |
| Crazy Horse |
1999 |
Buy |
| Saint Augustine |
1999 |
Buy |
| James Joyce |
1999 |
Buy |
| Rosa Parks |
2000 |
Buy |
| Virginia Woolf |
2000 |
Buy |
| Woodrow Wilson |
2000 |
Buy |
| Herman Melville |
2000 |
Buy |
| Leonardo da Vinci: A Life |
2000 |
Buy |
| Dante |
2001 |
Buy |
| Jane Austen |
2001 |
Buy |
| Buddha |
2001 |
Buy |
| Simone Weil |
2001 |
Buy |
| Andy Warhol: A Biography |
2001 |
Buy |
| Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life |
2001 |
Buy |
| Joseph Smith |
2002 |
Buy |
| Winston Churchill: A Life |
2002 |
Buy |
| Pope John XXIII |
2002 |
Buy |
| Charles Dickens |
2002 |
Buy |
| Elvis Presley |
2002 |
Buy |
| Saint Therese of Lisieux |
2003 |
Buy |
| Robert E. Lee |
2003 |
Buy |
| Frank Lloyd Wright: A Life |
2004 |
Buy |
| George Herbert Walker Bush |
2004 |
Buy |
| Napoleon |
2006 |
Buy |
| Julia Child |
2007 |
Buy |
| Joan of Arc |
2008 |
Buy |
| Martin Luther |
2008 |
Buy |
| Branch Rickey: A Life |
2011 |
Buy |
Picture#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| A Christmas Treat |
1982 |
Buy |
Plays#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Virginia |
1981 |
Buy |
| Triptych |
2005 |
Buy |
| Haunted |
2011 |
Buy |
Short Stories/Novellas#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Shovel Kings |
2009 |
Buy |
| Joyce’s Women |
2022 |
Buy |
Standalone Novels#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| August Is A Wicked Month |
1965 |
Buy |
| Casualties of Peace |
1966 |
Buy |
| Zee & Co. |
1971 |
Buy |
| A Pagan Place |
1971 |
Buy |
| Night |
1973 |
Buy |
| Johnny I Hardly Knew You |
1977 |
Buy |
| The Dazzle |
1981 |
Buy |
| The Rescue |
1983 |
Buy |
| The High Road |
1988 |
Buy |
| On The Bone |
1989 |
Buy |
| Time and Tide |
1992 |
Buy |
| House of Splendid Isolation |
1994 |
Buy |
| Down by the River |
1997 |
Buy |
| Wild Decembers |
1999 |
Buy |
| In the Forest |
2002 |
Buy |
| The Light of Evening |
2006 |
Buy |
| The Little Red Chairs |
2015 |
Buy |
| Girl |
2019 |
Buy |
The Country Girls Trilogy Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Country Girls |
1960 |
Buy |
| Girl with Green Eyes |
1962 |
Buy |
| The Lonely Girl |
1962 |
N/A |
| Chicas felizmente casadas |
1964 |
N/A |
| Girls in Their Married Bliss |
1964 |
Buy |
Edna O’Brien was one of the most important Irish writers of the twentieth century, publishing fiction, plays, memoir, and criticism across a career that stretched from 1960 to 2022. Her debut novel The Country Girls scandalized Ireland with its honest portrayal of two young women escaping the suffocating conventions of rural Irish life, and the books that followed continued to explore female desire, loneliness, and the tension between tradition and freedom.
Her body of work includes eighteen standalone novels, multiple short story collections (including the award-winning Lantern Slides and Saints and Sinners), three plays, and non-fiction works on Ireland, Byron, and James Joyce. Her final novel, Girl (2019), based on the Boko Haram kidnappings in Nigeria, demonstrated that her willingness to confront difficult subjects never diminished with age. O’Brien’s prose style — lyrical, precise, and emotionally unguarded — influenced generations of Irish and international writers.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books has Edna O’Brien written?
Edna O’Brien has written 90 books across nine series.
What was Edna O’Brien's first book?
Edna O’Brien’s first book is Abraham Lincoln, published in 1960.
Why were Edna O'Brien's books controversial in Ireland?
O’Brien’s early novels, particularly The Country Girls (1960), were banned in Ireland and publicly burned by parish priests because of their frank depictions of female sexuality and their criticism of the repressive social climate in rural Ireland. The books challenged the Catholic Church’s influence over Irish life at a time when such dissent was rare.