Thy Neighbour’s Wife

Liam O' Flaherty (1896-1984) was born in the Aran Islands of Ireland. He wrote his first novel in 1923. Awarded the Irish Academy of Letters Award for Literature, O'Flaherty wrote fourteen novels, including Famine, a number of short stories and countless other works. Thy Neighbour's Wife was his first novel originally published in 1923.

Thy Neighbour's Wife, is a story of love, religion, and patriotism set in rural Ireland in 1910. Religion and patriotism permeate the story line, as they did Irish society in 1910.

Lily McSherry returns to her island home with her young husband. Absent from the welcoming crowd at the pier is Lily's first love, Hugh, now Fr. McMahon, the island curate.


In a powerful story of conflict involving, religion, love, and politics, McMahon is tortured by his feelings for Lily and 'what might have been'.
Love, or more accurately the rejection of it, is the motif of this first novel by Liam O'Flaherty and the explosive and passionate story that unfolds is told with skillful exacting prose, of the kind that has led to Liam O'Flaherty being described as 'a master weaver of words'.

Liam O' Flaherty (1896-1984) was born in the Aran Islands of Ireland. He wrote his first novel in 1923. Awarded the Irish Academy of Letters Award for Literature, O'Flaherty wrote fourteen novels, including Famine, a number of short stories and countless other works. Thy Neighbour's Wife was his first novel originally published in 1923.