Author Name
Author Name
LITERARY, FILM & TV AGENCY
MARIANNE GUNN O'CONNOR
Anna Fitzgerald
Photo by Holst Photography
Anna Fitzgerald
Photo by Holst Photography
Anna Edith Fitzgerald was born in Dublin where she grew up and was educated. She studied for an Arts degree in Trinity College. Having spent some time in the United States, she returned to Ireland where she settled with her family.
Her debut novel, Girl in the Making was published by Penguin in 2024. Set in the suburbs of 1960s and 70s Dublin, the story is narrated by the central character, Jean Kennedy, a child in the household of the troubled Kennedy family. Girl in the Making was named Winner Of The John McGahern Prize 2025 and was included in the Guardian’s list Of Best Fiction Of 2024.
Anna has recently completed her second novel Swing.
She lives in Dublin with her husband and the youngest of their children and recently featured in the Dublin Book Festival and the West Cork Literary Festival in July 2025.
Praise for Girl in the Making
A Guardian ‘Best Fiction of 2024’ Selection
“Girl in the Making is written in the pitch-perfect voice of a girl who is a born noticer..this is a novel of concealment and shocking revelation. In working so closely with intimate emotions and domestic traumas, Fitzgerald has managed to create an unforgettable heroine and a dark picture of the world around her.”
Colm Toibin, Judge of the John McGahern Book Prize (for best debut novel or short story collection by an Irish writer or writer resident in Ireland published in the year 2024)
“Fitzgerald’s portrayal of the chauvinism of the era is reminiscent of the work of Tessa Hadley and Elena Ferrante.”
Rhiannon Lucy Coslett, The Guardian
"Girl in the Making is a beautiful story that captures the wisdom of childhood. Open this book and step into the world of Jean Kennedy. Prepare to be quietly transformed.”
Louise Nealon
“Furious, tender, and redemptive, with a register that lands somewhere between Jeanette Winterson and Sinéad O'Connor – yet Fitzgerald has a voice that's completely her own, writing with such power and control it's hard to believe this is her debut. Girl in the Making is magnificent.”
Aingeala Flannery
“Writing this good is a rare thing. Anna Fitzgerald's account of childhood and family in 1970s and ’80s Dublin is a masterful portrait of a place in time. Told with visceral intimacy, Girl in the Making is a powerful indictment of the corrosive effects of toxic masculinity on a young girl's life. This writer has arrived fully formed.”
Kathleen MacMahon
“Nostalgic, rich, intimate and authentic”
Irish Times
“There is a poignant mix of insight and innocence that harks back to O’Briens The Country Girls.”
Sarah Gilmartin, Irish Times
“This novel is devastating. And superb.”
Anne Cunnigham, Irish Independent
“Tender and perceptive … simply unforgettable.”
Sue Leonard, Irish Examiner
Girl in the Making by Anna Fitzgerald - Dublog (dubraybooks.ie)
Girl in the Making by Anna Fitzgerald | Waterstones