Born in Ireland in 1930 and driven into exile after publication of her controversial first novel, "The Country Girls", O'Brien has created a body of work which bears comparison with the very best writers of the twentieth century. In "Country Girl" we come face to face with literary life of high drama and contemplation. And along the way there are encounters with Hollywood giants, pop stars and literary titans - all of whom lend this life, so gorgeously,...

"From the best-selling author of Longbourn, a stunning new novel that follows an unnamed writer--Samuel Beckett--whose life and extraordinary literary gift are permanently shaped in the forge of war. When war breaks out in Europe in 1939, a young, unknown writer journeys from his home in neutral Ireland to conflict-ridden Paris and is drawn into the maelstrom. With him we experience the hardships yet stubborn vibrancy at the heart of Europe during...

A revealing new biography--the first in more than fifty years--of one of the twentieth-century's towering literary figures -- James Joyce, author of "Ulysses."

A reevaluation of the life of the writer as viewed through his relationships with the women who shaped his beliefs includes coverage of his remarkable mother, his accomplished wife, the early death of his sister, and his artistic colleagues.

"Colm Tóibín begins his incisive, revelatory Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know with a walk through the Dublin streets where he went to university--a wide-eyed boy from the country--and where three Irish literary giants also came of age: Wilde, Yeats, and Joyce. Elegant, profound, and riveting, Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know illuminates not only the complex relationships between three of the greatest writers in the English language and their fathers, but...

"Reimagining of the life of James Joyce's wife, muse, and the model for Molly Bloom in Ulysses"--