In the Forest (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Edna O’Brien
- First Published: 2002
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The 1960’s to the 1990’s
- Setting: The countryside of Western Ireland
- Principal Characters: Michen O’Kane, Aileen O’Kane, Eileen Ryan, Maddie, Cassandra
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: 1960’s, 1970’s, Abused persons, Murder or homicide, Twentieth century, Rural or country life, 1980’s, Mental illness, Victims, Forests or forestry, 1990’s, Monsters, Wilderness, Rejection
- Locales: Ireland
During the time that Edna O’Brien was engaged in research for her novel Wild Decembers (2000), she was brought to a spot in a forest in the west of Ireland where the bodies of a woman and a child had been found in a shallow grave. In response to this unsettling discovery, O’Brien recalled that she “felt, without a shadow of a doubt, a trigger which said, ‘You must tell this story.’” The story, which understandably caused a great deal of pain among the members of the community where the victims lived, concerned events in April, 1994, when Imelda Riney, aged...
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