The Thorn Birds

By Colleen McCullough

In the rugged Australian Outback, three generations of Clearys live through joy and sadness, bitter defeat and magnificent triumph, driven by their dreams, sustained by remarkable strength of character... and torn by dark passions, violence and a scandalous family legacy of forbidden love.

The Thorn Birds 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, who can never possess Ralph de Bricassart, the man she so desperately adores. Ralph will rise from parish priest to the inner circles of the Vatican... but his passion for Meggie will follow him all the days of his life.

Praise for The Thorn Birds:

'One of the biggest-selling, most widely read books in the history of fiction' Observer

'I simply could not put it down' Daily Mail

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Mar 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781781852514

Colleen McCullough

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.

Reviews for The Thorn Birds

[zarasecker18 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I much preferred the movie to the book. The book was still good but the movie allowed me to see a lot of what was spoken about in the book more accurately.

I certainly don't regret reading this book, I just preferred the movie.

[jclheatherm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorite family sagas is the story of the Cleary family, centered on only girl Meggie and her relationship with the local head of the church Father Ralph. Spanning several decades, and including plenty of anticipation, promise, heartbreak, and redemption, this book is another classic to read more than once. The famous 1980s miniseries 'Thorn Birds' was based off of McCullough's work.

[anacskie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I remember reading this when I was a teenager. I borrowed it from a friend and stayed up the whole night to read it. This was banned from our Catholic school library. And I was not allowed to read it but manage to sneak it in. Yes, this book was controversial but I loved it.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book and the TV miniseries based on it. Set in Australia it tells the story of Meggie Cleary who loves a man she can never possess, the priest Ralph de Bricassart.

[carol420 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Thorn Birds starts off excellently, detailing the day-to-day life of a family struggling to get by in early twentieth century New Zealand. It's well-written, it feels very realistic, and there's a strong sense of place. There's believable conflict among the family members without any of them being unsympathetic. There's an interesting and unflinching look at the effects of strict gender roles on average women's lives: something we don't see in most historical fiction, which tends to feature the elite rather than regular folks. When the family picks up and moves to Australia, I was still enthralled. I loved the descriptions of life in the Outback and was drawn into the family's story.

[pamjw · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's more than 30 years since i first read this book. A fascinating tale of family lives through the generations. With some life perspective I can't work out quite how i feel about the struggle of and with a priest of forbidden love, other than how sad. The things we do, and don't do, for love...

[tabatha014 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book took me awhile to read but it was worth it. Anything that could happen to a family in the span of 50 years happens in this book. The characters are amazing and you get fully wrapped up in their lives wanting to know how things turn out.

[mlyons1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An epic love story.

[dawnlovesbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

family saga. wonderful book!

[drfuriosa · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

An intriguing family drama with an Australia that defies imagination is overwhelmed by an ocean of soap and topped with a mountain of fromage. That romance was just too much for me--and way too creepy in its origin.

[thetruebookaddict · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this years and years ago, I think in my teen years. Loved it. Due for a reread, I think!

[tess_w · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the greatest love story and love triangle of all time. Not only is this book a love story of the heartbreaking kind, it is also great historical fiction. While reading you can almost hear the Irish brogues and feel the searing heat in the outback. This book is one of my top 5 books of all time. I re-read it every 4-5 years.

[librarycin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This tells the story of three generations of a family based on a ranch in Australia. Fiona (Fi)’s daughter Meggie (short for Megan) falls in love with the local priest when she is only 10 or 11 years old. The priest, Rafe(?), seems to also fall for Meggie as she grows up. Meggie goes on to marry a neglectful husband, Luke, but she misses home too much and leaves him to return, but only after having two kids of her own, Justine and Dane. I listened to the audio. It was fairly slow all the way through. It did pick up – at least enough so that I didn’t lose focus – particularly after Meggie got married, I thought. I wasn’t as interested in Rafe’s point of view. That was some of when I lost interest, during his parts. (Oh, look – see what happens when you listen to the audio... apparently his name was Ralph! And for a while, I couldn’t tell if it was Rafe or Wraith!) I’m not sure I really liked any of the characters. Looking at some of the other reviews, it seems there was romance? Hmm, really? I didn’t notice. Overall, I’m rating it ok. For a while, I thought about upping that to good, but I’m dropping it back to simply ok. I did like that the audio kept my attention (mostly, especially after Meggie and Luke got married). It was mildly entertaining.

[jdpirate5 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

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.Sadly, because I hate to see any book damaged in any way, this book was also a victim of the freak wave. As it was in a bag, though, only the first fifty pages or so are wrinkled--and that, thank goodness, is ALL!I'm not too distraught over this one, however, as I stopped reading it once I got to chapter two, Ralph.I had been ho-humming it from the beginning, really, and had been forcing myself through because it was a gift and I actually wanted to be able to talk about it with the giver (ha ha. corny book joke). I can't bring myself to go on with it, however. It's boring.I know it's a super big classic, but my TBR pile is just so huge that I can't bring myself to endure this story when there's so much potential waiting for me.This review is a post on my blog.

[kemilyh1988 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

WOW! I remember watching the miniseries as a high school student with my mom and loving it, so I figured I would give the book a try. I was not disappointed!

[laugal-2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

loved the book,loved the movie!

[memccauley6 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Greatest Romance Novel of All Time.
I have read this at least a dozen times, and still love Meggie, Ralph, Fee, Paddy & Frank. A classic, cannot recommend it highly enough.

[mrsdanaalbasha · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. from the moment it leaves the nest it searches for thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. and, dying, it rises above its own agony to out carol the lark and the nightingale. one superlative song, existence the price. but the whole world stills to listen, and God in his heaven smiles. for the best is only bought at the cost of great pain... or so says the legend.

[bwhitner-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

ISecond time I've read this book. Read it twenty seven years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter Meghan. Yes I named her from the book. This was such a moving story. A love story with a priest. Show even they are fallible. Twenty seven years ago is different from what priests look like today. It wasn't only their love story but Paddy and Fee's and the love story with their respective children. Very powerful the gift of love in many ways, both hurtful and wonderful. This book shows so many dimensions of that in the many relationships displayed throughout the book.

[shouldireadit · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A wonderful story tracing the Cleary family from their origins in Ireland, to New Zealand and Australia. As the years pass, readers cannot help but be drawn into their family life. We shed tears with Fee at the loss of all that she'd known, we gnaw our fingernails with Meggie as she bemoans her lot in life with Ralph, we shed tears with the entire clan on the loss of those we've come to know and love. "The Thorn Birds" is a must read, and will keep readers glued to the pages as it leads us to its ultimate conclusion.

[evilmoose · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A love story to the land, and the saga of the Cleary family. This is an Australian classic I've known of for many years, but somehow never read. And it's marvellous, but I'm glad I didn't read it earlier. I appreciated it far more now than I would have done as a teenager, or in my early 20s. An Irish Catholic family growing up in New Zealand at first, before moving to Australia to take over the large sheep station belonging to a manipulative family member. In many ways it isn't perfect. It feels a little long, and sometimes the random tangents seem to splice into the story for no reason. But I loved the random tangents. I loved the descriptions of the station Drogheda, the beauty and awe-inspiring nature of the land, and the portrait of the farming family. And of course the love stories woven throughout, as family history repeats, and doesn't. I grew up in outback Australia, so this struck many chords with me. There were many familiar characters, moments, experiences. I wouldn't recommend it whole-heartedly to anyone and everyone, but for me it was a 5 star read.

[jimmaclachlan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this many years ago & remember liking it. Not too long after, Richard Chamberlain starred in the mini series. I haven't read anything else by her, though.

[aliterarylion · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My favorite book of all time. I love how this one love story transcends through time. Meggie and Father Ralph are my favorite literary couple other than Ayla and Jondalaar. The author uses such prose and her characters have such depth. The miniseries is quite lovely.

[lynleys-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a book to really immerse yourself in. It would make a great holiday read, especially if you were travelling through the Austrlian outback. Though I'd add a TW for child cruelty at the very beginning.

[tess_schoolmarm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the greatest love story and love triangle of all time. Not only is this book a love story of the heartbreaking kind, it is also great historical fiction. While reading you can almost hear the Irish brogues and feel the searing heat in the outback. This book is one of my top 5 books of all time. I re-read it every 4-5 years.

[kikiunhinged · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I wanted to give the story 4 stars because the writing of character, story line and scenery are brilliant and kept me entranced through the epic lenght of this novel. But honestly, I thought it could've been about 100 pages shorter. While all the characters had their place to some degree, did we really need a whole sidestory about the twins at war, etc etc? And while Drogheda makes a compelling character in and of itself, I could've done without the repetitive descriptions of it and its heinous conditions. The sections were so poorly named I could find no rhyme or reason to them being named after certain characters. Truly an intriguing storyline but I ended it thinking Meggie was a pathetic, miserable brat. So big freaking deal if you're first crush was a priest. Get over him & move on. As if she was the first girl that ever got her heart broken and lost her first love. Pretty much happens to like, hello? All women! Just goes to show money cant buy happiness or emotional intelligence.

[drmaf-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Probably the closest we'll ever get to the quintessential Australian novel. Deservedly resonates in Australian literature as one of the great novels of the 20th century, although it is not perfect, and the flaws become more obvious on subsequent readings. I dont find Meggie Cleary particularly sympathetic or interesting as a lead character. She is annoyingly passive in the first 2/3 of the book, and although she does develop and start to gain literary flesh in the last part, by then I just found it hard to really care what happened to her.. The other characters too tend to be ciphers, they are really just images in the landscape, which is the real hero of the story. I dont know of any other recent Australian novel that has captured, to quote Dorothea McKellar, "the beauty and the terror" of the Outback as well as McCullough does. Her description, for example, of the horror of bushfire is both poetic and terrifying, and as vivid now after a number of re-readings as it was on the first. This, and the book's epic scale, are its real strengths, the reason why its so memorable. Its a still rewarding read.

[amandacb_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've heard so many things about this book and movie that when I saw a freshly purchased copy at my local library, I had to pick it up. I was not disappointed in the epic story; it utterly engrossed me and kept me occupied for a couple of weeks. However, a couple of things: the relationship between Meggie and the priest absolutely creeped me out.

[abshepherd · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Thorn Birds is an epic tale of an three generations of an Australian family. I'm not a fan of Richard Chamberlain so the mini-series was not something I enjoyed. The book is much better anyway. At times it felt long, and it IS a long book, but the story is engaging and I never lost interest in these characters. All in all a worthwhile read.

[bcrowl399 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of my all time favorite books. Compelling story especially for a reformed Catholic. Collen McCullough writes so well and paints such glorious scenes in your mind. I developed a deep appreciation for Australia and I would love to go there some time. I loved the mini-series as well.