House of Splendid Isolation (Edna O’Brien, 1994)

The heartbreaking dilemmas and the noble and bloody history of Ireland come vividly to life in the tale of Josie, a widow living in a solitary house outside an Irish village, whose home becomes the hideout of an IRA terrorist.

House of Splendid Isolation is a complicated novel, a mix of suspense, social commentary and exploration of the choices one makes and has to live with. O’Brien succeeds in making clear the complexity of Ireland by giving her characters the space they need to become humanized. She has gone behind the newspaper headlines of bombings, atrocities and midnight murders and finds there only good intentions, blind devotion, stalemate and ruin. All of it unnecessary, all of it sadly human. This is a brave book.

Edna O’Brien received, among other honours, the Irish PEN Award for Literature, the Ulysses Medal from University College Dublin, and a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Literary Academy.