Tap cover to enlarge

A Pagan Place

Published
Dec 1971
Main Genre
Contemporary Romance Contemp. Romance
Rating
Pages
208

About This Book

A woman recalls her rural Irish home—and the reason for her escape—in this poetic novel by "one of the great writers . . . in the English-speaking world" (The New York Times).

In A Pagan Place, Edna O'Brien returns to Ireland, the uniquely wonderful, terrible, and peculiar place she once called home. After leaving to join a religious community in Belgium, a young woman remembers her childhood on the western coast of Ireland. She reflects on the rituals of rural life, the people she encountered, and the enchanting beauty of the landscape.


This is the Ireland of country villages and barley fields, of mischievous girls and druids in the woods. As the impressions of her former home intensify, her mind turns to the shocking event that led to her departure.

"O'Brien's evocative prose shows the chilling hold that history and the dead clamp on the living." —Paul Gray, Time
"O'Brien brings together the earthy and the delicately poetic: she has the soul of Molly Bloom and the skills of Virginia Woolf." —Ray Sawhill, Newsweek

Genres & Themes

Genres

Buy This Book

Formats & Editions

Browse the different covers, formats, and publication history for this title.

Paperback

Paperback edition cover
Paperback
First Edition Dec 1971 Penguin ISBN 0140033416
Buy
Paperback edition cover
Paperback
Feb 1985 Graywolf Press ISBN 0915308592
Buy
Paperback edition cover
Trade Paperback
May 2001 Mariner ISBN 0618126902
Buy
Paperback edition cover
Paperback
Nov 2016 Faber and Faber (UK) ISBN 0571270301
Buy
Paperback edition cover
Trade Paperback
Oct 2019 Picador ISBN 0374538794
Buy

Hardcover

Hardcover edition cover
Hardcover
Jan 1970 Orion (UK) ISBN 0297000276
Buy

eBook

eBook edition cover
eBook
May 2001 Houghton Mifflin ISBN B009UQ7NSW
Buy
eBook edition cover
eBook
May 2001 Harcourt ISBN 0547630638
Buy
eBook edition cover
eBook
May 2001 Picador ISBN 0374721475
Buy
eBook edition cover
eBook
Sep 2019 Picador ISBN B07L2SHV7X
Buy

Large Print

Large Print edition cover
Hardcover
Jun 1985 ISIS Large Print Books ISBN 1850890552
Buy