Audrey Magee

Audrey Magee is an Irish novelist known for exploring historical and social issues. Her debut novel, The Undertaking (2013), was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Irish Book Awards and nominated for the Dublin Literary Award and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. Her second novel, The Colony (2022), was longlisted for the Booker Prize.

Audrey Magee was born in Ireland and studied German and French at University College Dublin. She went on to study journalism at Dublin City University. She worked as a journalist, contributing to prominent publications, including The Times, The Irish Times, The Observer, and The Guardian.

Magee reported on a wide range of issues, including the war in Bosnia, child labour in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and the impact of perestroika in Central Asia. As Ireland correspondent for The Times, she covered the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the peace process and the aftermath of the Omagh bombing.

Magee travelled extensively during her twenties and thirties, which shaped her understanding of different cultures and global conflicts. She lived in Germany and Australia, teaching English, before settling in Wicklow, Ireland, where she lives with her husband and three daughters.

Magee's debut novel, The Undertaking (2013), is a poignant story set against the backdrop of the Second World War. It tells the story of a German soldier on the Russian front who marries a photograph of a woman he has never met, and in Berlin, the woman does the same with a portrait of the soldier. At first, it is a marriage of convenience. Their relationship develops as they face the harsh realities of war together. The novel has been translated into ten languages and became a film.

Her second novel, The Colony (2022), was published by Faber & Faber and later by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The book was longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize. The Colony examines the complexities of colonisation through the lens of an English artist and a French linguist who visit a remote island off the coast of Ireland.

"When I was a student in Dublin, I worked in Waterstones," Magee recalls. "The Booker period was an exciting time in the shop, with tables stacked high with shortlisted books. That my book is now longlisted and on those tables is beyond thrilling for me. It's glorious."

Audrey Magee lives and works in Wicklow.

Photo credit: audreymagee.com