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The Wren, the Wren

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024.

Carmel had been alone all her life. She had been alone since she was twelve years old. The baby knew all this. They looked at each other; one life into another life, and the baby knew exactly how alone her mother had been.

Nell - funny, brave and so much loved - is a young woman with adventure on her mind. As she sets out into the world, she finds her family history hard to escape. For her mother, Carmel, Nell's leaving home opens a space in her heart, where the turmoil of a lifetime begins to churn. And across the generations falls the long shadow of Carmel's famous father, an Irish poet of beautiful words and brutal actions.

This is a meditation on love: spiritual, romantic, darkly sexual or genetic. A generational saga that traces the inheritance not just of trauma but also of wonder, it is a testament to the glorious resilience of women in the face of promises false and true. Above all, it is an exploration of the love between mother and daughter - sometimes fierce, often painful, but always transcendent.

©2023 Anne Enright (P)2023 Penguin Audio Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction World Literature Heartfelt Thought-Provoking Funny

Critic reviews

The Wren, The Wren is a magnificent novel. Anne Enright's stylistic brilliance seems to put the reader directly in touch with her characters and the rich territory of their lives (Sally Rooney, author of NORMAL PEOPLE)
These pages practically crackle with intelligence, compassion and wit. Phil McDaragh is so real I almost googled him. The Wren, The Wren might just be Anne Enright's best yet (Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses)
All stars
Most relevant
Liked all of it; disliked none of it. Brilliant reading!! What more to say of this lovely author

The characters just popped out, fully animated

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Savour every word of this one. Best are the bits read by Enright herself, but it’s all good.

so good

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I was drawn in to the storytelling. The narration captivating and immersive I felt every emotion of all the characters. The influence of the times, expectations and experience of this Irish family through the eyes and hearts of the women whose lives were impacted by the Poet and his transgressions and lives lived. Beautiful and impactful.

Engaging, descriptive beautiful work of an Irish family connected by the Poet

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I devoured every second of this. Such beautiful writing and excellent reading. Some sentences in this book i truly think will stay with me forever

Beautiful , perfect poetic words

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i liked it so much as soon as it finished i went back to the beginning and listened again.

the Wren the Wren

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