fbook icon 60  About the Author


Deborah OBrien colour5x7 420 

Deborah O'Brien is a visual artist, educator and internationally published author of four novels for Penguin Australia, including the bestselling 'Mr Chen's Emporium'.

Deborah has written and illustrated stories for as long as she can remember, earning two dollars for the first story she submitted as a ten-year-old to 'Sun-Herald Juniors'. After her Higher School Certificate she majored in French and German at the University of Sydney and became a high school teacher in western Sydney. Following the birth of her son, Deborah began running painting classes from home. They proved to be so successful that she was invited to teachart workshops across Australia and New Zealand, and later in the UK and France.

During this time Deborah authored/co-authored a dozen best-selling books on art, craft and design including the bestselling 'Folk Art of France: Decor Folklorique'. dragonflyAs a contributing editor to 'Fine Art and Decorative Painting' magazine, she wrote a popular monthly feature for almost nine years. She even found herself doing a stint as a craft presenter on Foxtel's Lifestyle Channel, demonstrating faux finishes, stencilling and decorative painting techniques.

Deborah returned to teaching in 2003 and later became an educational consultant. In 2009 she began her first novel, 'Mr Chen's Emporium' which was published by Penguin Random House in 2012. The book went on to become a bestseller and a book club favourite. It was included in a 'Reader's Digest Select Edition' and was published in Germany by Ullstein Verlag as 'Amys Geheimnis' and is being translated into Portuguese by Reader's Digest in Brazil. 'The Jade Widow' (Penguin 2013) and 'A Place of Her Own' (Penguin 2014) completedthe 'Emporium Trilogy'.

Deborah's critically acclaimed contemporary novel, 'The Trivia Man' (Penguin 2015) was published in Germany by Goldmann Verlag in November 2016 as 'Ein anderes Wort fur Gluck' and has appeared in a Reader's Digest Select Edition in both English and German.

2017 saw the publication of 'The Rarest Thing', an historical novel set in the Victorian High Country in 1966. This novel is available as an ebook from Kobo.

Her latest book, â€˜Camille Dupré'  is a story of love and loss, hope and renewal, told through the eyes of Camille as a child in 1931 and a young woman during the Nazi Occupation of France twelve years later.  This is Deborah's favourite of all her books. You can download the free e-novel here. If you enjoy it, please consider making a donation to a COVID-19 related charity.

Together with her family and two dogs (a kelpie-cattle dog cross and a Border collie), Deborah lives in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. You can read more about her life in the country here: Home in the Highlands