Edna O’Brien, a ‘fearless teller of truths’ has died at the age of 93
The beloved Irish author Edna O’Brien has died at the age of 93. She died peacefully on Saturday 27 July after a long illness. Her publisher Faber said that their thoughts are with her family and friends, in particular her sons Marcus and Carlo.
‘Edna O’Brien was one of the greatest writers of our age. She revolutionised Irish literature, capturing the lives of women and the complexities of the human condition in prose that was luminous and spare, and which had a profound influence on so many writers who followed her.
‘A defiant and courageous spirit, Edna constantly strove to break new artistic ground, to write truthfully, from a place of deep feeling. The vitality of her prose was a mirror of her zest for life: she was the very best company, kind, generous, mischievous, brave. Edna was a dear friend to us all, and we will miss her dreadfully. It is Faber’s huge privilege to publish her, and her bold and brilliant body of work lives on.’
Edna O’Brien was born in County Clare in 1930. Her first book, The Country Girls, published in 1960, was banned in Ireland for its portrayal of female sexuality. Celebrated for her exploration of women’s experiences in her work, she went on to win many accolades, such as The Pen Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature in 2018, the prestigious French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in May 2021, and she was conferred with honorary doctorates from Galway University, Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Limerick.
President Michael D Higgins said that O’Brien was a fearless teller of truths, a superb writer possessed of the moral courage to confront Irish society with realities long ignored and suppressed.
‘Through that deeply insightful work, rich in humanity, Edna O’Brien was one of the first writers to provide a true voice to the experiences of women in Ireland in their different generations and played an important role in transforming the status of women across Irish society.’
‘While the beauty of her work was immediately recognised abroad, it is important to remember the hostile reaction it provoked among those who wished for the lived experience of women to remain far from the world of Irish literature, with her books shamefully banned upon their early publication.’
Literary agent Caroline Michel said in her tribute to the author that once met, and once read, Edna O’Brien was ‘forever rebelliously and joyously in your life,’ and went on to quote from O’Brien’s Girl with Green Eyes:
‘We all leave one another. We die … If I do leave you, I will have passed on to you something of myself; you will be a different person because of knowing me; it’s inescapable.’
