num_pages: 673
description: Colleen McCullough's sweeping saga of dreams, struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian Outback has enthralled readers the world over. This is the chronicle of three generations of Clearys, ranchers carving lives from a beautiful, hard land while contending with the bitterness, frailty, and secrets that penetrate their family. Most of all, it is the story of only daughter Meggie and her lifelong relationship with the haunted priest Father Ralph de Bricassart - an intense joining of two hearts and souls that dangerously oversteps sacred boundaries of ethics and dogma.A poignant love story, a powerful epic of struggle and sacrifice, a celebration of individuality and spirit, Colleen McCullough's acclaimed masterwork remains a monumental literary achievement - a landmark novel to be cherished and read again and again.(back cover)
language: English
title: The Thorn Birds
titlecomplete: The Thorn Birds
characters: Luke O'Neill, Ralph de Bricassart, Harold "Hal" Cleary, Stuart "Stu" Cleary, Mary Elizabeth Cleary Carson, Anne Mueller, Luddie Mueller, Bob Cleary, Padraic "Paddy" Cleary, Meghann "Meggie" Cleary, Jack Cleary, Rainer "Rain" Moerling Hartheim, James and Patrick "Jims and Patsy" Cleary, Francis "Frank" Cleary, Fiona "Fee" Cleary, Dane O'Neill, Archbishop (later Cardinal) Vittorio di Contini-Verchese, Justine O'Neill, Hughie Cleary
genres: Australia, Historical Fiction, Historical, Novels, Drama, Classics, Historical Romance, Adult, Romance, Fiction
ratings_count: 344615
places: Vatican City, Outback, New Zealand, Australia
publisher: Avon Books