Maeve Binchy books

Anthologies

Collections

Fairytales for Feminists Reading Order

Non-Fiction

Plays

Short Stories/Novellas

Standalone Novels

Maeve Binchy (1939-2012) was born in Dalkey, Dublin, the eldest of four children. She worked as a teacher and then as a columnist for The Irish Times before publishing her first collection of short stories, Central Line, in 1978. Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle, followed in 1982 and became a bestseller, launching a career that would span three decades and sell more than 40 million books in 37 languages.

Binchy’s novels are set mostly in Ireland and focus on ordinary people navigating friendships, family, love, and loss. Circle of Friends (1990) follows two young women from a small town who attend university in Dublin. Tara Road (1998) tells the story of an Irish woman and an American woman who swap houses. Both were adapted into films. Her books are known for their warmth, humor, and an ability to make readers care about a large cast of characters without relying on melodrama.

Beyond her novels, Binchy wrote plays, short story collections, and non-fiction, including The Maeve Binchy Writers’ Club (2008). She was recognized for her generosity to other writers and her total lack of pretension. Her final novel, A Week in Winter, was published posthumously in 2012.