Description:

When a wanted war criminal, masquerading as a healer, settles in a small west coast Irish village, the community are in thrall. One woman, Fidelma McBride, falls under his spell and in this searing novel, Edna O'Brien charts the consequence of that fatal attraction. This is a story about love, the artifice of evil and the terrible necessity of accountability in our shattered, damaged world.

It has been ten years since the last novel from Edna O'Brien and The Little Red Chairs reminds us why she is felt to be one of the great Irish writers, of any generation. The Little Red Chairs may be her masterpiece.

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Review

"The great Edna O'Brien has written her masterpiece."―Philip Roth

"The Little Red Chairs is a daring invention set at the bloody crossroads where worlds collide: savage, tender and true."―John Banville

"Edna O'Brien is both brilliant and brave. This book astonished me."―Ann Patchett

"Reading The Little Red Chairs reaffirms a belief I've held since I first read Ms. O'Brien's work: She is, quite simply, a master."―Kevin Powers

"Devastating but characteristically insightful [and] artfully written.... It is also the first great work of fiction to explore the new underworld of migrant labour in bulimically rich London, meticulously researched from the inside."―Ed Vulliamy, Guardian *(UK)*

"Authoritative and engrossing.... For all its confrontations with calamity and upheaval, The Little Red Chairs is neither grim nor fraught with despair. It is filled, on the contrary, with a narrative energy and aplomb.... This is a writer whose descriptive gift is fine-tuned."―Patricia Craig, Independent* (UK)*

"The narrative is harrowing, yet it is full of lyrical language and moving touches of the everyday."―*Telegraph (UK)*

"Edna O'Brien's The Little Red Chairs is a gem of a novel, a text to treasure."―Nuruddin Farah

"It is O'Brien's skill in demonstrating the contrast between beauty and ugliness, peace and war, kindness and brutality that gives this novel its power.... There is much to think about in this rich, searching and enthralling book, a novel of ideas as well as emotions, and arguably one of the most interesting and ambitious ever written by an Irish author."―Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Irish Times**

"A memorable work of art for our unsettled times.... [O'Brien's] prose is as lyrically arresting as ever, her vision as astute, and as delicate. The Little Red Chairs is notable for its interweaving of the near-mythical and the urgent present, and for its unflinching exploration of the complex and lasting effects of human brutality.... At once arduous and beautiful, The Little Red Chairs marries myth and fact in a new form that journeys, as we do now, from Cloonoila to The Hague, from fairy­tale to contemporary agon."―Claire Messud, Financial Times**

"Extraordinary."*―Claire Messud for the Boston Globe***

"Provocative, moving, masterly.... O'Brien has a way of hypnotizing the reader."―Fiona Wilson, Times *(UK)*

"O'Brien's fizzing, risk-taking symphony is a triumph.... The most brilliant powerfully evocative Irish novel published in 2015.... This is storytelling of the highest order, resounding with the empathy and authority we yearn for in fine writing."―Joseph O'Connor, Independent *(Ireland)*

"Breathtakingly audacious.... So intimate is the mood O'Brien conjures, and so spellbinding the effect of her narrative's shifts in perspective and tense, that when an appalling act of violence occurs, the reader is left genuinely reeling.... This is a novel that leaves an indelible impression - gorgeously written and fiercely humane."―Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail *(UK)*

"A spectacular piece of work, massive and ferocious and far-reaching.... Holding you in its clutches from first page to last, it dares to address some of the darkest moral questions of our times while never once losing sight of the sliver of humanity at their core.... It's impossible not to be knocked out by the sly perfection of O'Brien's prose."―Julie Myerson, Guardian*, "Best Books of 2015"*

"Magnificent.... A joyful reminder of why O'Brien's literary career has spanned so many years: she repeatedly finds the sweet spot between tight craft and unhinged brilliance.... A timely and defiant book."―Lucy Atkins, Sunday Times* (UK)*

"O'Brien's writing in this rich, wrenching book can be both lyrical and hard-edged, which suits a world where pain shared or a tincture of kindness can help ease the passage from losses."―***Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"O'Brien retains every element of her gorgeous writing [in] her new novel.... Dark fairy-tale threads give the story a magic-realism effect, but ultimately...the author's twenty fourth book is starkly realistic. O'Brien speaks to contemporary political violence in a suitably audible voice."―*Brad Hooper, Booklist (starred review)

About the Author

Edna O'Brien is theauthor of numerous books, including The Country Girls trilogy, A Fanatic Heart, The Light of Evening, and Saints and Sinners. She is the recipient of the James Joyce Ulysses Medal and an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Born and raised in Ireland, she currently lives in London.