Why read The Country Girls?

Book cover of The Country Girls: Three Novels and an Epilogue

Book description

A treasure of world literature back in print, featuring a new introduction by Eimear McBride

This omnibus edition includes the novels The Country Girls, The Lonely Girl, and Girls in Their Married Bliss.

The country girls are Caithleen “Kate” Brady and Bridget “Baba” Brennan, and their story begins in the…

Explore

Topics

Genres

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Country Girls as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

James W. Morris

Author

I like fiction that is both sad and funny because that approach represents the most satisfying literary approximation of the contours of real life.

This means I like Irish writers. Edna O’Brien’s Country Girls trilogy is a series of three novels that follows the lives of two friends in 1950s Ireland from the time they were naïve schoolgirls until they became world-weary married women.

The books were banned in Ireland—as much for O’Brien’s audacity in challenging an entrenched literary patriarchy as for their frank sexuality—but that (now quaint-seeming) controversy should not detract a reader’s attention from what is a richly-rewarding,…

From James' 3 favorite reads in 2023.