JOSEPH O'CONNOR (1)
1963
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Joseph O'Connor is one of Ireland's best-known writers. His hugely successful famine novel, Star of the Sea, the highest selling novel in the UK in 2004, won the Prix Littéraire Européan Madeleine Zepter for European Novel of the Year, as well as a number of other awards in France, Italy, Ireland and beyond. His other works of fiction include Cowboys and Indians (1991), Redemption Falls (2007) and Ghost Light (2011), based on the life of the actress Molly Allgood, and her relationship with John Millington Synge. His non-fiction works include Sweet Liberty: Travels in Irish America, The Irish Male at Home and Abroad, and The Secret World of the Irish Male. His play Red Roses and Petrol won the In Dublin Best New Irish Play award in 1995. He adapted Daphne du Maurier's novel My Cousin Rachel for the Gate Theatre in 2012 and was the writer and lyricist for Heartbeat of Home, a 2013 dance show from the producers of Riverdance. He lives in Dublin.