Author of The Painter’s Women: Goya in Light and Shade

Fionnuala Brennan started writing ghost stories at the age of seven and has been writing ever since: journals, accounts of her travels in Europe, Africa and Asia, short stories. Eventually, when she had finished rearing her two daughters and working full time, she decided to release some of this stuff from captivity in her desk drawer and published On a Greek Island, a travel memoir, a novel called All Things Return, several prize-winning short stories as well as a two-act play Bloodroot.

The Painter’s Women results from her fascination with Francisco de Goya.

Praise for The Painter’s Women

“From the six female narrative voices that comprise  The Painter’s Women, there emerges an intriguing portrait of the artist Francisco de Goya. A complex character who insisted that his deafness made him see more clearly, Goya dominates the novel.  Ambitious and difficult, unfaithful and generous, uncompromising and volatile: we see the man and the influences, both personal and political, that underpinned such masterpieces as Los Desastres de la Guerra and Los Caprichos.” – Catherine Dunne

“The Painter’s Women is a Cubist view of Goya. Fionnuala Brennan creates shards of the great painter as viewed by the women who competed with one another for a slice of his affections. Rich in historical detail and powerfully atmospheric, The Painter’s Women is as dark, passionate and haunting as a Goya masterpiece.” – Mary Morrissy

“An original and impressive novel that carries its learning lightly and makes for compelling and enjoyable reading.”   – Marie Heaney