Novels
Novels
Where They Lie
A smart, sophisticated read about the psychology and effects of lost love, broken relationships grief and guilt, which makes a familiar story feel new. Edel Coffey writing about “WHERE THEY LIE”
The Sunday Times, July 2014
“Lying in its older sexual meaning also comes into it . . . Monaghan-born O’Donnell is terrific at teasing out the distance between men and women, not least in the shape of Niall, a personable if unreliable man who has “begun to doubt his capacity for handling women’s sorrows”. No wonder that Celtic Tiger Dublin, in which much of this novel is very deliberately set, with all its acutely observed sense of freedom, opportunity, and shaking off the worst of the past, provides such an escape from the claustrophobic oppressiveness of Belfast. . . . By turns lyrical and angry, this passionate novel forensically examines one of the mos painful traumas of Ireland’s recent past and makes something altogether strange and lovely from it.”
Eilis O’Hanlon, The Sunday Independent, June 8th, 2014
New Island Books 2014
The Elysium Testament
Fear, denial, love, longing, grief and obsession are the powerful emotions which assail Nina, an accomplished grotto restorer, as she tries to make sense of her mystical son’s last tragic summer and the slow unravelling of her marriage. With raw honesty and seductive lyricism, O’Donnell draws us into the troubled life of a bewildered family attempting to accommodate the inexplicable into their contemporary world.
‘Mary O’Donnell writes with poetic elegance and a savage, witty intelligence. The Elysium Testament is a modern morality tale imbued with the gothic eerieness of The Turn of the Screw. Cool, haunting and absolutely unflinching.’ (Novelist Mary Morrissy).
Virgin and the Boy
Ireland. A place for the mad, the violent and the erotic? Never. But think again. What happens when a rising rock star who really believes in herself meets a boy fourteen years her junior? What happens when that rock star becomes the focus for a self-styled group of Christian fascists who will stop at nothing to control the lives of others?
Virgin, aka Ginnie Maloney, is the rock star. Liberal, extravagant and uninhibited, she is determined to rise to international stardom. Luke O’Regan is the nineteen-year-old who will follow her anywhere – whatever the consequences. When a tragic event draws them together the couple make the mistake of believing that freedom has no price and no moral dimension. What happens is a powerful account of tender, obsessive love, but equally the story of one woman’s survival despite the most punishing odds.
Poolbeg Press 1996
The Light Makers
Mary O’Donnell received widespread acclaim and sales with her best-selling first novel The Light-Makers in 1992. It is a warm afternoon in Dublin and Hanna Troy is wandering about the city with time to kill before her appointment at the Women’s Centre. Her marriage is in ruins. Her husband is having an affair and refusing to find out if he is the cause of their childlessness, so she is hurt and angry.
During the couple of hours of her wait she reviews her life; childhood in a border county, her career as a professional photographer, her husband’s success as an architect and her relationship with the members of her extended family, especially her half-sister Rose. What emerges is a portrait of a complex woman, with grievous faults and quite angelic virtues. Hanna’s self-told story is often shocking, sometimes maddening but always engrossing, and told with rare frankness and great beauty.
Poolbeg 1992
Where They Lie
Where They Lie (also available as an e-book): Described by Maureen Boyle of LightsOut NI as “a compelling, compassionate and astonishing read,” this novel focuses on the ‘Disappeared’, and how those who are left behind confront difficult realities. Gerda McAllister’s life is certainly turned upside down when she is contacted by a mysterious caller, who claims to have information about the location of the bodies of her murdered loved ones. With her Dubliner boyfriend, her Evangelist sister-in-law Alison, and her publisher brother Gideon, she begins to piece together a truth, or a version of the truth. The thing is, can any of these characters confront the truth and discover where it really lies?
New Island Books 2014
The Elysium Testament
Fear, denial, love, longing, grief and obsession are the powerful emotions which assail Nina, an accomplished grotto restorer, as she tries to make sense of her mystical son’s last tragic summer and the slow unravelling of her marriage. With raw honesty and seductive lyricism, O’Donnell draws us into the troubled life of a bewildered family attempting to accommodate the inexplicable into their contemporary world.
‘Mary O’Donnell writes with poetic elegance and a savage, witty intelligence. The Elysium Testament is a modern morality tale imbued with the gothic eerieness of The Turn of the Screw. Cool, haunting and absolutely unflinching.’ (Novelist Mary Morrissy).
Trident Press London 1999
Virgin and the Boy
Ireland. A place for the mad, the violent and the erotic? Never. But think again. What happens when a rising rock star who really believes in herself meets a boy fourteen years her junior? What happens when that rock star becomes the focus for a self-styled group of Christian fascists who will stop at nothing to control the lives of others?
Virgin, aka Ginnie Maloney, is the rock star. Liberal, extravagant and uninhibited, she is determined to rise to international stardom. Luke O’Regan is the nineteen-year-old who will follow her anywhere – whatever the consequences. When a tragic event draws them together the couple make the mistake of believing that freedom has no price and no moral dimension. What happens is a powerful account of tender, obsessive love, but equally the story of one woman’s survival despite the most punishing odds.
Poolbeg Press 1996
The Light Makers
Mary O’Donnell received widespread acclaim and sales with her best-selling first novel The Light-Makers in 1992. It is a warm afternoon in Dublin and Hanna Troy is wandering about the city with time to kill before her appointment at the Women’s Centre. Her marriage is in ruins. Her husband is having an affair and refusing to find out if he is the cause of their childlessness, so she is hurt and angry.
During the couple of hours of her wait she reviews her life; childhood in a border county, her career as a professional photographer, her husband’s success as an architect and her relationship with the members of her extended family, especially her half-sister Rose. What emerges is a portrait of a complex woman, with grievous faults and quite angelic virtues. Hanna’s self-told story is often shocking, sometimes maddening but always engrossing, and told with rare frankness and great beauty.