Nora: A Love Story of Nora and James Joyce

ISBN: 1799951316

Author: Nuala O'Connor

Condition: New

Review"An exceptional novel by one of the most brilliant contemporary Irish writers."-- "Joseph O'Connor, Irish PEN Award winning author"Product DescriptionMP3 CD FormatAcclaimed Irish novelist Nuala OConnors bold reimagining of the life of James Joyces wife, muse, and the model for Molly Bloom in Ulysses is a lively and loving paean to the indomitable Nora Barnacle (Edna OBrien).Dublin, 1904. Nora Joseph Barnacle is a twenty-year-old from Galway who left school at twelve, is a chambermaid at Finns Hotel, and has all but given up on a happy ending. But on June 16-Bloomsday-her life is changed when she meets James Joyce, a fateful encounter that turns into a lifelong love. Despite his hesitation to marry, Nora follows him in pursuit of a life beyond Ireland, and they surround themselves with a buoyant group of friends that grows to include Samuel Beckett, Peggy Guggenheim, and Sylvia Beach.But as their life unfolds, Nora finds herself in conflict between their intense desire for each other and the constant anxiety of living in poverty throughout Europe. She desperately wants literary success for Jim, believing in his singular gift and knowing that he thrives on being the toast of the town, and it eventually provides her with a security long lacking in her life and his work. So even when Jim writes, drinks, and gambles his way to literary acclaim, Nora provides unflinching support and inspiration, but at a cost to her own happiness and that of their children.With gorgeous and emotionally resonant prose, Nora is a heartfelt portrayal of love, ambition, and the quiet power of an ordinary woman who was, in fact, extraordinary.About the AuthorNUALA O'CONNOR is the author of Miss Emily and a well-regarded short-story writer and novelist, writing in her native Ireland under the name Nuala Ní Chonchúir. She has won many fiction awards, including RTÉ radio's Francis MacManus Award, the Cúirt New Writing Prize, the Jane Geske Award, the inaugural Jonathan Swift Award, the Cecil Day Lewis Award, and the Kerry Irish Novel of the Year Award, among others. Her short story ""Peach"" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and she was shortlisted for the European Prize for Literature for her short story collection Nude. She has been published in Granta, The Stinging Fly, and Guernica, among many others. She was born in Dublin in 1970 and lives in East Galway with her husband and three children.