SOURCE: “A Conversation with Maeve Binchy,” in Writer, Vol. 113, No. 2, February, 2000, pp. 14–15.

In the following interview, Binchy discusses Tara Road, her career, and Irish literature as a whole.

Maeve Binchy is the author of Light a Penny Candle, Evening Class, The Glass Lake, The Copper Beech, The Lilac Bus, Circle of Friends, Silver Wedding, Firefly Summer, Echoes, three volumes of short stories, two plays, and a teleplay, which won three awards at the Prague Film Festival. Her latest book, Tara Road, is an Oprah Book Club selection.

[Frumkes:] Maeve, tell us a bit about Tara Road.

[Binchy:] It is the story of two women—one Irish and one American—and the problems they face in one particular year of their lives. The Irish woman is Ria Lynch. She's married to a drop-dead handsome man named Danny, a real estate agent. They have two children and live on Tara...