The Light of Evening, Edna OBrien
The Light of Evening, Edna OBrien
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The Light of Evening

Author: Edna O’Brien

Narrator: Dearbhla Molloy

Unabridged: 9 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/15/2008

Synopsis

From her hospital bed in Dublin, the elderly Dilly awaits the visit of her daughter, Eleanora, from London. The epochs of her life pass before her; she also retraces Eleanora's precipitate marriage to a foreigner, which alienated mother and daughter, and Dilly's heart rending letters sent over the years in a determination to reclaim her daughter. But Eleanora's visit does not prove to be the glad reunion Dilly prayed for. And in her hasty departure, Eleanora leaves behind a secret journal of their stormy relationship—a revelation that brings the novel to a shocking close.

About Edna O’Brien

Edna O’Brien (1930–2024) wrote numerous multiaward–winning books, including the Country Girls trilogy. Awards and prizes include the Irish PEN Lifetime Achievement Award, Writers' Guild of Great Britain, Premier Cavour (Italian), American National Arts Gold Medal, the James Joyce Ulysses Medal 2006, the 2019 David Cohen Prize for lifetime achievement in literature, and the 2018 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. She was an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Born and raised in the west of Ireland, she also lived in London for many years.

About Dearbhla Molloy

Dearbhla Molloy is an actress and narrator and was nominated for Broadway’s 1992 Tony Award as Best Actress for Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa. On television she has appeared in Foyle’s War, Waking the Dead, Midsomer Murders, Holby City, and New Tricks.

Reviews

Goodreads review by John on February 13, 2014

O’Brien can make you work: “Men are queer fish hard and soft both all pie when they want you so sweet and whispery sweeter than a woman then not.” Or she can write as if wielding a blade: “Gabriel, the man she might have tied the knot with except that it was not meant to be. Putting memories to slee......more

Goodreads review by Federica on August 07, 2020

Due vite uguali nonostante tutto. Dilly è in ospedale, gravemente malata: è in attesa della diagnosi e della visita dell'amata figlia che tarda ad arrivare al suo capezzale. Con i ricordi la donna ripercorre il suo passato: da giovane emigrata negli Stati Uniti, dove è stata a servizio presso ricche......more

Goodreads review by Molly on July 27, 2022

Oh, Edna. I love you so, yet you keep writing the same book over and over! And in thinly-veiled autobiography. The writing here was gorgeous in its detail, of course, but the story felt boring and like I had read it before (since I've read most of her books). I liked the Dilly parts, especially her......more

Goodreads review by Ally on June 12, 2012

Dilly is lying in her hospital bed and her thoughts fade in and out through the years of her life, from her frightening but exciting journey from Ireland to America in the 1920's, to lost love and her struggle to exist and to have a meaningful relationship with her children. Her lost daugher, Eleano......more

Goodreads review by Shari on February 09, 2008

Reading Edna O'Brien's latest novel was sort of like reading a cross between James Joyce -- I definitely noticed his influence here -- and Alice Munro, and maybe a little Virginia Woolf, too. I wish I remembered more of The House of Splendid Isolation, which I read in 2000. Reading this was a lovely......more

Quotes

“A book supple with mature power and feeling, where a delicate everyday, even humorous love between mother and daughter is revealed as the grandest of passions.” Nuala O’Faolain

“Lush with portent, alive with Irish lore and sprinkled with autobiographical elements.” Winnipeg Free Press

“Graceful, bittersweet new novel about the ache of maternal love…one of Ireland’s finest novelists…She manages to touch on life’s most complex and painful issues in ways that are both deft and tender.” The Telegram

“O’Brien meditates with haunting lyricism on the lure of home and the compulsion to leave…The award-winning [author] evokes the cruelty of estrangement while allowing her characters to remain sympathetic and giving them real voice.” Publishers Weekly

“O’Brien’s poetic language is delightful…Molloy’s narration is a welcome aid. The heavy brogue she falls into whenever she’s speaking in the mother or grandmother’s voice provides clear character differentiation for the listener.” AudioFile

“Speaking specifically to mother-daughter relationships, this poignant novel also explores the larger issue of the Irish American consciousness: why Irishmen and Irishwomen came to America, what they did here, and why many returned home.” Booklist

“A novel of powerful, complicated emotions and rapturous writing.” Kirkus

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