The Thorn Birds: A Family Novel

Colleen McCullough

Oct 2009 · Sold by Harper Collins

About this ebook

“Beautiful….Compelling entertainment.” —New York Times

One of the most beloved novels of all time, The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough’s sweeping family saga of dreams, titanic struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian Outback, returns to enthrall a new generation.

The Thorn Birds is a chronicle of three generations of Clearys—an indomitable clan of ranchers carving lives from a beautiful, hard land while contending with the bitterness, frailty, and secrets that penetrate their family. It is a poignant love story, a powerful epic of struggle and sacrifice, a celebration of individuality and spirit. Most of all, it is the story of the Clearys' only daughter, Meggie, and the haunted priest, Father Ralph de Bricassart—and the intense joining of two hearts and souls over a lifetime, a relationship that dangerously oversteps sacred boundaries of ethics and dogma.

“A heart-rending epic…truly marvelous.” —Chicago Tribune

Ratings and reviews

A good novel overall but the second generation (Justine and Dane), although their characters were important to the story, seemed a bit forced.

Even after all these years, this is still a great read. I miss reading books like this. Today's books just don't read as well. They don't have the "meat" these books do. Good story telling at its best.

I absolutely adore this book. The character's are so realistic and human, you really feel for their struggles even if sometimes you want to strangle them for some of their dumb mistakes. I even love how in the end of the book there is no happily ever after, because sometimes life is like that. But a great read, for all of that, and it is well worth sticking to the story until the end.

About the author

Colleen McCullough is the author of The Thorn Birds, Tim, An Indecent Obsession, A Creed for the Third Millennium, The Ladies of Missalonghi, The First Man in Rome, The Grass Crown, Fortune's Favorites, Caesar's Women, Caesar, and other novels. She lives with her husband on Norfolk Island in the South Pacific.