Order of Book Series
0

Edna O’Brien Books in Order

Edna O’Brien has written 47 books, published between 1960 and 2022. The first book is The Country Girls (1960) and the newest is Joyce's Women (2022). Publication order is the reading order below.

Books
47
Published
1960–2022
Confirmed
2 of 47 titles
Pages on record
7,695 in 38 of 47 books
Reading time
128–192 hours

Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 7,695 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 38 of 47 titles with a page count on record.

See all 47 books in order Printable Edna O’Brien checklist
Photo of Edna O’Brien, author of the Country Girls Trilogy

Edna O'Brien was an Irish novelist, playwright, poet and short-story writer. The Country Girls (1960) opens the catalogue and was banned and denounced from the pulpit for breaking the silence around sexual and social matters in post-war Ireland. Forty-five titles are catalogued to 2022, among them Girl with Green Eyes (1962), Girls in Their Married Bliss (1964), August Is A Wicked Month (1965) and Night (1973). The inner lives of women, Ireland, and mothers and daughters are the constant subjects.

How many Edna O’Brien books are there?

Edna O’Brien has 47 books, released between 1960 and 2022. 3 of them belong to the Country Girls Trilogy series.

Edna O’Brien Books in Publication Order

The table lists all 47 Edna O’Brien books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.

  1. Cover of The Country Girls by Edna O’Brien, book 1 of the Country Girls Trilogy (1960)
  2. Cover of Girl with Green Eyes / Girl by Edna O’Brien, book 2 of the Country Girls Trilogy (1962)
  3. Cover of Girls in Their Married Bliss by Edna O’Brien, book 3 of the Country Girls Trilogy (1964)
  4. Cover of Casualties of Peace by Edna O’Brien (1966)
  5. Cover of Three Dublin Plays by Edna O’Brien (1969)
  6. Cover of Night by Edna O’Brien (1973)
  7. Cover of A Scandalous Woman And Other Stories by Edna O’Brien (1974)
  8. Cover of Mother Ireland by Edna O’Brien (1976)
  9. Cover of Johnny I Hardly Knew You by Edna O’Brien (1977)
  10. Cover of A Rose in the Heart by Edna O’Brien (1979)
  11. Cover of Lantern Slides by Edna O’Brien (1990)
  12. Cover of Time and Tide by Edna O’Brien (1992)
  13. Cover of Edna O'Brien Reader by Edna O’Brien (1994)
  14. Cover of House of Splendid Isolation by Edna O’Brien (1994)
  15. Cover of Down by the River by Edna O’Brien (1997)
  16. Cover of Irish Revel by Edna O’Brien (1998)
  17. Cover of Returning by Edna O’Brien (1998)
  18. Cover of James Joyce by Edna O’Brien, book 7 of the Penguin Lives series (1999)
  19. Cover of Wild Decembers by Edna O’Brien (1999)
  20. Cover of In the Forest by Edna O’Brien (2002)
  21. Cover of Triptych by Edna O’Brien (2005)
  22. Cover of Triptych and Iphigenia by Edna O’Brien (2005)
  23. Cover of The Light of Evening by Edna O’Brien (2006)
  24. Cover of Haunted by Edna O’Brien (2011)
  1. 1
    The Country GirlsCountry Girls Trilogy #11960 · 192 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1960192
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  2. 2
    Girl with Green Eyes / GirlCountry Girls Trilogy #21962 · 212 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1962212
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  3. 3
    Girls in Their Married BlissCountry Girls Trilogy #31964 · 152 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1964152
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  4. 4
    August Is A Wicked Month1965 · 208 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1965208
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  5. 5
    Casualties of Peace1966 · 141 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1966141
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  6. 6
    The Love Object1968 · 544 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1968544
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  7. 7
    Three Dublin Plays1969 · 247 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1969247
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  8. 8
    Zee & Co.1971 · 126 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1971126
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  9. 9
    A Pagan Place1971 · 240 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1971240
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  10. 10
    Night1973 · 117 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1973117
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  11. 12
    Mother Ireland1976 · 129 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1976129
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  12. 13
    Johnny I Hardly Knew You1977 · 143 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1977143
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  13. 14
    Collector's Choice1978 · confirmed 1/4
    1978–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  14. 15
    A Rose in the Heart1979 · 287 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1979287
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  15. 16
    Virginia1981 · confirmed 1/4
    1981–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  16. 17
    James and Nora1981 · confirmed 1/4
    1981–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  17. 18
    The Dazzle1981 · 48 pages · confirmed 1/4
    198148
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  18. 19
    A Christmas Treat1982 · 44 pages · confirmed 1/4
    198244
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  19. 20
    The Rescue1983 · 48 pages · confirmed 1/4
    198348
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  20. 21
    A Fanatic Heart1984 · 480 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1984480
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  21. 22
    Vanishing Ireland1987 · 136 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1987136
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  22. 23
    The High Road1988 · 180 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1988180
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  23. 24
    On The Bone1989 · 18 pages · confirmed 1/4
    198918
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  24. 25
    Lantern Slides1990 · 240 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1990240
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  25. 26
    Time and Tide1992 · 336 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1992336
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  26. 27
    Edna O'Brien Reader1994 · 421 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1994421
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  27. 28
    House of Splendid Isolation1994 · confirmed 1/4
    1994–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  28. 29
    Mrs. Reinhardt1996 · confirmed 1/4
    1996–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  29. 30
    Down by the River1997 · confirmed 1/4
    1997–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK

Edna O’Brien books grouped by series

Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.

Country Girls Trilogy in order

3 books
  1. 1. The Country Girls
  2. 2. Girl with Green Eyes / Girl
  3. 3. Girls in Their Married Bliss

Penguin Lives in order

1 book
  1. 7. James Joyce

Faber Stories in order

1 book
  1. 17. Paradise

Standalone books

42 books

42 Edna O’Brien titles here are not listed as part of any series.

Do you have to read Edna O’Brien books in order?

You only need to read Edna O’Brien books in order within the Country Girls Trilogy series, which holds 3 of the 47 Edna O’Brien books listed here. The numbered table above gives every book in publication order.

Where to start with Edna O’Brien

Start with The Country Girls (1960), the earliest published title.

What is the newest Edna O’Brien book?

Joyce's Women (2022) is the newest Edna O’Brien book released so far.

Is there a new Edna O’Brien book coming?

No next Edna O’Brien book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.

Edna O’Brien at a glance

Died
Edna O’Brien died in 2024, according to Wikidata.
Last book
The newest book credited to Edna O’Brien on record dates from 2022.
Release pace
Edna O’Brien books have appeared about one a year on average.
Length
7,695 pages across the 38 of 47 books with a recorded length, a median of 186 pages each.
Busiest decade
Most Edna O’Brien books, 10 of 47, were published in the 1990s.

What the Edna O’Brien books are about

38 of the 47 Edna O’Brien books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: women is tagged on 14 of 38. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.