House of Splendid Isolation by Edna O'Brien

House of Splendid Isolation by Edna O'BrienHistory is everywhere. It seeps into the soil, the sub soil. Like rain, or hail, or snow, or blood. Josie O'Grady is an elderly woman, living alone in her dilapidated big house on the outskirts of a rural Irish village. Then one day her bedroom door swings open to reveal McGreevy, an IRA terrorist on a bloody crusade, who has chosen her isolated house for sanctuary. As days pass, these two outsiders develop a grudging respect for each other, which

History is everywhere. It seeps into the soil, the sub-soil. Like rain, or hail, or snow, or blood.

Josie O'Grady is an elderly woman, living alone in her dilapidated big house on the outskirts of a rural Irish village. Then one day her bedroom door swings open to reveal McGreevy, an IRA terrorist on a bloody crusade, who has chosen her isolated house for sanctuary. As days pass, these two outsiders develop a grudging respect for each other, which grows into affection and friendship, but the police net is closing in and, with dawning horror, Josie starts to suspect that McGreevy is not only using her house as a refuge.

Based on interviews with the IRA leader Dominic McGlinchy in Portlaoise Prison and published four years before the Good Friday Agreement, this thrilling, political, poetic novel is a portrait of the state of the Irish nation at the height of the Troubles.

Format:Paperback / softback 272 pages
Publisher:Faber & Faber
Imprint:Faber & Faber
Edition:Main
ISBN:9780571397556
Published:20 Nov 2025
Classifications:Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
Weight:222g