These are novels of heart-breaking empathy, rigorous honesty and peerless beauty. (Eimear McBride)

The Country Girls and its sequels, The Lonely Girl and Girls in their Married Bliss, changed the temperature of Irish literature in the 1960s and inspired generation after generation of readers and writers. The passion, artistry and courage of Edna O'Brien's vision in these three novels continue to resonate into the twenty-first century - and they are collected here with a new introduction from Eimear McBride.