Lisa O'Donnell

Lisa O'Donnell won the Orange Screenwriting Prize in 2000 for The Wedding Gift and, in the same year, was nominated for the Dennis Potter New Screenwriters Award. Her debut novel, The Death of Bees, was the winner of the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize.

O'Donnell's new novel is Closed Doors.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. O'Donnell's reply:

I just finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I haven’t seen the movie yet and was advised by a friend to read the book first. It’s told in the first person and Death is the narrator. He takes an interest in a little girl called Liesel Meminger, or The Book Thief because she steals book even though she can’t read in the beginning. Anyway an opportunist, Death saves her journal and tells us the story of her childhood. It’s beautifully executed.

I’m also reading The Rental Heart and other Fairytales by Kirsty Logan. It’s wonderful. I read a story from it every day. I love to draw it out. It feels wrong to devour it in one sitting. She’s from Scotland and she just sold her new book The Gracekeepers to Hogarth and it will be out in May 2015. You’ll be hearing a lot about this writer in the US in the not too distant future.

I’m also re-reading Atonement by Ian McEwan to remind me what good writing is. The structure of the book is impeccable. I do a little teaching and students are always asking me about structure.

Learn more about the book and author at Lisa O'Donnell's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Death of Bees.

Writers Read: Lisa O'Donnell (December 2012).

--Marshal Zeringue