The Irish writer Edna O’Brien, whose novels were once banned in her native Ireland because of their frank treatment of sexuality, has died at the age of 93. The announcement was made by her literary agent PFD.
“It is with great sadness that Caroline Michel at PFD and Faber announce the death of beloved author Edna O’Brien. She died peacefully on Saturday 27th July after a long illness. Our thoughts are with her family and friends, in particular her sons. The family has requested privacy at this time.”
Faber said: “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.”
She wrote some 20 novels, including The Country Girls trilogy which launched her career in the Sixties though they were banned at home. She was feted abroad and eventually found respect in Ireland too.
The Guardian noted that series of prizes including the 2001 Irish PEN lifetime achievement award and the 2006 Ulysses medal revealed shifting attitudes in her homeland. The transformation was complete when the Irish president, Michael D Higgins, gave her the country’s highest literary accolade, the Saoi of Aosdána, in 2015, and called her a “fearless teller of truth” who had continued to write “undaunted, sometimes by culpable incomprehension, authoritarian hostility and sometimes downright malice”.
Her UK publisher Faber added: added: “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.”
