Julia O'Faolain


Julia O'Faolain was an Irish novelist and short story writer.

Early life and education

O'Faolain's parents were Irish writers Seán Ó Faoláin and Eileen Gould. She was educated at University College Dublin, Sapienza University of Rome and the Sorbonne Paris. She worked as a writer, language teacher, editor and translator and lived in France, Italy, and the United States.

Writing career

Her novels include
Her short story collections include We Might See Sights!, Man in the Cellar, Melancholy Baby and Daughters of Passion. As Julia Martines, she translated Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence: The Diaries of Buonaccorso Pitti and Gregorio Dati and Piero Chiara's A Man of Parts. Her No Country for Young Men was shortlisted for the 1980 Booker Prize.
She lived in Los Angeles, where she was married to a historian of the Renaissance, Lauro Martines. They had one son. With her husband, she co-edited Not in God's Image: Women in History from the Greeks to the Victorians.
O'Faolain died on 27 October 2020, aged 88.

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