The high road - Hardcover

Edna O'Brien is the author of 19 books. She was the winner of the 1993 Writers' Guild Prize for Fiction. Her biography of James Joyce was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in June 1999. Her recent fiction has been about Irish to;pic - religion, politics, property. In 2001 her documentary novel, In the Forest - about a brutal murder on the west coast - caused a furore in her native Ireland. It was the subject of a BBC Omnibus film.

Like all O'Brien's novels, this work is about womanas mother, daughter, victim, and lover. The story takes place on a resort island that, with its sexual repression, gossipy neighbors, and strongly Catholic sentiments, is a thinly disguised version of Irish country towns. Here narrator Anna seeks refuge from human contact and here she meets Catalina, who reawakens an appreciation of life and a hope for happiness that is soon dashed by the moral constraints of the society. This new novel has all O'Brien's virtuescomplex female characters and lyrical descriptionsas well as all her flaws, especially her limited depiction of male characters. It may not earn O'Brien a greater reputation or a wider audience, but it should satisfy her devoted fans.Donald P. Kaczvinsky, The Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park
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