Clare O’Dea
Clare is the author of Voting Day (2022), a Fairlight Moderns novella, and Before the Leaves Fall (2025), which are loosely connected.
Originally from Dublin, Clare O’Dea has lived in Switzerland since 2003. After studying French and Russian at Trinity College Dublin, she had a varied career in the Irish and Swiss media. Clare has also published three non-fiction books: The Naked Swiss: A Nation Behind 10 Myths (2016, with an updated edition in 2018), The Naked Irish: Portrait of a Nation Beyond the Clichés (2019) and All About Switzerland (2024). Her short story ‘The Favour’ was shortlisted for the 2018 Hennessy New Irish Writing Awards and another story, ‘The Obituary’, was highly commended in the 2019 Irish Book Awards.
Clare grew up in a bilingual home speaking English and Irish. She now speaks five languages. She lives in the bilingual (French/German) town of Fribourg with her husband and three daughters.
Read our interview with Clare about Voting Day (along with an exclusive extract) here.
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