57 ratings | 1 review | avg rating:4.35

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Paraic O'Donnell

Goodreads Author

Born

Dublin, Ireland

Website

http://paraicodonnell.com/

Genre

Fiction, Fantasy

Influences

Jane Austen, George Eliot, P.G. Wodehouse, John Updike, Ali Smith, A.S ...more

Member Since

July 2014

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/paraicodonnell

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Paraic O’Donnell's first novel, The Maker of Swans, was named the Amazon Rising Stars Debut of the Month for February 2016, and was shortlisted for the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards in the Newcomer of the Year category.

Praise for The Maker of Swans

‘Lavishly entertaining…strange and captivating.’

– The Independent

‘At its best, the prose is glorious, combining an ear for deep cadences of language with a phenomenal acuity of vision…O’Donnell is clearly a major talent.’

– The Guardian

‘A vividly imagined and deeply pleasurable gothic fantasy.’

– Financial Times

‘Ambitious and original.’

– The Irish Times

‘Extraordinarily readable…almost cinematic.’

– Irish Independent

‘There’s sufficient invention and engaging strangeness to keep the reader enfolde ...more

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Combine Editions
Paraic O'Donnell’s books

Average rating: 3.4 · 10,335 ratings · 1,752 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors

	The House on Vesper Sands 3.41 avg rating — 7,963 ratings — published 2018 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Maker of Swans 3.28 avg rating — 1,689 ratings — published 2016 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Naming of the Birds 3.53 avg rating — 683 ratings — published 2025	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Untitled 1 of 2 by Paraic O'Donnell (Goodreads Author), Unknown Author 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

Series by Paraic O'Donnell

Cutter and Bliss (2 books)
by

Paraic O'Donnell (Goodreads Author)

3.42 avg rating — 8,645 ratings

Quotes by Paraic O'Donnell (?)

“A degree of suspicion is always warranted, Bliss. I wake up in the morning with a degree of suspicion. I look at you with a degree of suspicion, God knows.”
― Paraic O'Donnell, The House on Vesper Sands

4 likes

“You have never heard music, Eustace, until you have heard him. It is made of starlight and of first kisses. It seems scarcely to belong to our world.”
― Paraic O'Donnell, The Maker of Swans

tags: music

2 likes

“You may say it, Georgie, and no one would blame you. You may say that you told me so, that he and his kind were not to be trusted. But I thought I knew better. I thought I could make my way in their world even if I didn’t truly belong to it. I thought it was enough to be clever, Georgie, and to make a secret of all I truly cared for. I thought it was enough.”
― Paraic O'Donnell, The House on Vesper Sands

2 likes

See all Paraic O'Donnell's quotes »

Polls

Time for June Nominations...

Poll will remain open until May 14th
Vote for your favorite, plan to read the book, and we will see you in the winning discussion thread...thanks!

The House on Vesper Sands

by Paraic O'Donnell

9 votes, 25.7%

Things I Wish I Told My Mother

by Susan Patterson

7 votes, 20.0%

Memory Wall

by Anthony Doerr

6 votes, 17.1%

The Company We Keep

by Frances Itani

5 votes, 14.3%

The Nickel Boys

by Colson Whitehead

5 votes, 14.3%

A Cat's Guide to Bonding with Dragons

by Chris Behrsin

2 votes, 5.7%

Elsey Come Home: A novel

by Susan Conley

1 vote, 2.9%

35 total votes

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