The New York Times Book Review hailed The Country Girls, the first book in Edna O'Brien's critically acclaimed trilogy, as "Powerful. Intelligent. Ironic. A treasure."

The Lonely Girl continues the story of childhood friends Kate and Baba, now both twenty-one, as they navigate the rocky, sometimes treacherous pathways of urban life. With hearts as big as Dublin, and hopes as bright as new pennies, they move bravely and eagerly toward the future. Yet the two couldn't be more different. Kate toils in a grocery shop and lives out her romantic fantasies in books. Baba entertains more earthbound dreams. Their principles—and friendship—are tested when Kate meets a dashing married man, and discovers the exhilaration of passion...and the consequences of falling in love.

A novel that combines the teeming ethos of big-city life with the ambitions and yearnings of two emerging young women, The Lonely Girl is a stellar achievement from one of Ireland's finest storytellers.