Marita Conlon-McKenna is one of Ireland’s favourite authors. Her books include the award-winning Under the Hawthorn Tree, set during Ireland’s Great Famine, which has been widely translated and published and is now considered an Irish classic. Her other books include the bestseller The Magdalen. She is a winner of the International Reading Association Award in the USA. She is a former chairperson of Irish PEN. She lives in Dublin with her husband and family.