Edna O'Brien — The Country Girls with Edan Lepucki - Lost Ladies of Lit

Send us Fan Mail

When Edna O’Brien published her debut novel The Country Girls in 1960, she was branded a “Jezebel” in her native Ireland—but that didn’t stop her from completing a poignant trilogy about a pair of friends coming of age in a world for which village life and convent school failed to prepare them. Despite initial backlash to her sexually frank depiction of young women’s lives and desires, O’Brien’s writing brought her acclaim and celebrity status—Vanity Fair dubbed her “the playgirl of the western world.” Novelist Edan Lepucki joins us to discuss the trilogy’s timeless appeal and the complicated-but-endearing friendship of characters Kate Brady and Baba Brennan.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Country Girls trilogy by Edna O’Brien

Edna O’Brien interview on BBC’s “World Book Club”

Time’s Mouth by Edan Lepucki

California by Edan Lepucki

Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki

Mother’s Before by Edan Lepucki

Italics Mine Substack by Edan Lepucki

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 35 on Maud Hart Lovelace

Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management

Ernest Gébler