num_pages: 560
description: The Thorn Birds is a robust, romantic saga of three generations. It begins in the early years of this century when Paddy Cleary moves his wife, Fiona, and their seven children to Drogheda: an Australian sheep station, a quarter of a million well-stocked acres, owned by his autocratic and childless older sister. For more than half a century we follow their fates.As background to the Cleary's family lives there is the land itself: stark, relentless in its demands, brilliant in its flowering, prey to gigantic cycles of drought and flood, rich when nature is bountiful. It is like no other place on earth, and binds fast those who have known it, however hard they try to break its hold.
language: English
title: The Thorn Birds
titlecomplete: The Thorn Birds
characters: Francis "Frank" Cleary, Luke O'Neill, Rainer "Rain" Moerling Hartheim, Archbishop (later Cardinal) Vittorio di Contini-Verchese, Dane O'Neill, Luddie Mueller, Meghann "Meggie" Cleary, Fiona "Fee" Cleary, Hughie Cleary, Stuart "Stu" Cleary, Mary Elizabeth Cleary Carson, James and Patrick "Jims and Patsy" Cleary, Harold "Hal" Cleary, Bob Cleary, Jack Cleary, Padraic "Paddy" Cleary, Ralph de Bricassart, Anne Mueller, Justine O'Neill
genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Romance, Historical, Drama, Historical Fiction, Romance, Adult, Australia, Novels
ratings_count: 344625
places: New Zealand, Vatican City, Outback, Australia
publisher: Book Club Associates