Audrey Magee

Audrey Magee is an Irish novelist and journalist. Her debut novel, The Undertaking, was nominated for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction in 2014.[1][2][3][4]

Biography

Magee studied German and French at University College Dublin and journalism at Dublin City University.[5] For 12 years, she worked as a journalist, writing for publications such as The Times, The Irish Times, The Observer, and The Guardian.[5]

In 2014, Magee published The Undertaking, her debut novel.[4] It was published by Atlantic Books.[6] The novel is set in World War II-era Germany and "tells the story of Peter Faber, a German soldier fighting on the Eastern front, who marries Katharina Spinell, a woman he has never met, in order to escape the horrors of the battlefield for a few days."[6]

She wrote The Undertaking with the goal of trying to understand "what it was like to have been an ordinary German during the Second World War."[3] Magee took a "long time" to write the novel, as she "struggled with the novel's cruelty and indifference."[3] To cope, she took walks and drank tea.[3] The novel was reviewed in The New York Times, which said, "To write a story that doesn’t allow for much sympathy, that keeps readers at a remove from the central characters, is one of the greatest challenges an author can undertake. That Magee succeeds as well as she does is impressive."[4]

Magee lives in Wicklow with her husband and three daughters.[7]

References
  1. Helen Dunmore (2014-03-01). "The Undertaking by Audrey Magee – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 2016-04-20.
  2. Lucy Popescu (2014-02-02). "Book review: The Undertaking by Audrey Magee | Reviews | Culture". The Independent. Retrieved 2016-04-20.
  3. "A Q&A with Audrey Magee about The Undertaking". Irishtimes.com. 2015-02-13. Retrieved 2016-04-20.
  4. Louisa Thomas (2014-09-14). "Love and Fascism — 'The Undertaking,' by Audrey Magee". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-04-20.
  5. BookBrowse. "Audrey Magee author biography". BookBrowse.com. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
  6. O'Loughlin, Writing.ie. Editor Vanessa (2014-02-13). "The Undertaking: Eleanor Fitzsimons Talks to Audrey Magee". Writing.ie. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
  7. "About Audrey Magee - Author of 'The Undertaking'". www.audreymagee.com. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
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