Deirdre Madden Book order

'Remembering Light and Stone' is a moving study of a young woman coming to terms with herself in a changing world.

After a brilliant youth, the painter Roderic Kennedy's life has been overtaken by a series of crises - alcoholism, the failure of his marriage to an Italian woman, and estrangement from his three daughters following his return to Ireland. When he meets Julia Fitzpatrick, twenty years younger than he and also an artist, it seems as if this period of turbulence and misfortune from which he has been struggling to emerge is at an end. But when Julia then meets William Armstrong, a middle-aged lawyer, it sets in motion a chain of events which, in the course of the following year, has dramatic and unforeseen consequences for all three of them. Deirdre Madden's ambitious novel is both a moving love story and a thought-provoking meditation upon the nature of painting. It is above all an exploration of what it means to be an artist in contemporary society.

For Theresa and her student friends, Belfast can seem an urban nightmare - a city where violence can erupt at any moment, where secrecy and bitterness are nursed behind closed doors, and where Theresa's twin brother, Francis, has been murdered, Deirdre Madden carefully and movingly reveals the crisis of faith that confronts Theresa when her devout Catholicism provides no explanation for the tragedy. Hidden Symptoms was originally published in Faber's First Fictions anthology where it was highly praised and was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 1987.

When James proposes, it seems like an opportunity for Jane to leave her lonely past behind and become part of a family. But the presence of a woman in the cottage near their remote farmhouse threatens Jane's new-found happiness.

Fintan Buckley is a pleasant, rather conventional and unimaginative man, who works as a legal adviser in an import/export firm in Dublin. He lives in Howth and is married with two sons who are at university, and a small daughter. As he goes about his life, Fintan begins to experience states of altered consciousness and auditory hallucinations, which seem to take him out of a linear experience of time. Over the years he becomes distanced from his family, and in the course of the novel this link is re-established and helps to bring him understanding and peace, although in a most unexpected way.

One by One in the Darkness follows a week in the lives of three sisters shortly before the start of the IRA ceasefire in 1994, undercut with the story of their childhood in Northern Ireland of the 1960s and 1970s.

While absent in New York, the celebrated actor Molly Fox has loaned her house to a playwright friend, who is struggling to write a new work. Over the course of this, the longest day of the year, the playwright reflects upon her own life, Molly's, and that of their mutual friend Andrew, whom she has known since university.

After a brilliant youth, the painter Roderic Kennedy's life has been overtaken by a series of crises - alcoholism, the failure of his marriage and an estrangement from this three daughters. When he meets Julia Fitzpatrick, it seems as if this period of turbulence and misfortune is at an end.

Nothing is Black is a beautifully told story of three women who find themselves in a remote part of Donegal at a defining moment in their lives. Wealthy and successful, Nuala has everything except the peace of mind she so desperately needs. She has come to stay with her cousin Claire, who leads a solitary life as a painter. Anna, Claire's neighbour, longs for a reconciliation with her estranged daughter. Through their stories, Deirdre Madden explores the themes of friendship, family and the nature of creativity, confirming her reputation as one of Ireland's most talented writers.