The Thorn Birds

The Thorn Birds is a hearty, romantic story about the Clearys, a unique family. The story starts in the early 1900s when Paddy Cleary moves his wife Fiona and their seven children to Drogheda, a large sheep station in Australia owned by his controlling and childless older sister. It concludes more than 50 years later when the only survivor of the third generation, the talented actress Justine O'Neill, decides to follow her own path in life and love, despite being far from home.

The main characters of this captivating tale are the unwavering Meggie, the lone daughter of the Cleary family, and the man she really loves, the very attractive and driven priest Ralph de Bricassart. Though distance affects their lives, it does not lessen their emotions for one other. Ralph's path takes him a very long way, from a remote Outback parish to the corridors of the Vatican; Meggie, except from a short and sad marriage abroad, remains bound to the Drogheda that is part of her bones.

This book is filled with wonderful characters, like the gentle and strong Paddy who is hiding a secret memory; the obedient Fiona who is keeping love at bay because it once betrayed her; the violent and tormented Frank; and the other hardworking Cleary sons who bring to the endless lands of Drogheda the energy and devotion that most men reserve for women. The land itself is also a strange location unlike any other on Earth; it is harsh, unyielding in its demands, dazzling in its blossoming, vulnerable to enormous cycles of flood and drought, wealthy when nature is abundant.

ISBN 0380018179, Alternate Cover Edition (ISBN13: 9780380018178)