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The Wren, The Wren

The Women's Prize for Fiction shortlisted novel from the Booker Prize-winning author

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The Wren, The Wren

By: Anne Enright
Narrated by: Anne Enright, Aoife Duffin, Owen Roe, Liza Ross
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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 Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction World Literature Heartfelt Thought-Provoking Funny
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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)
The Wren, The Wren may be her best book yet
Wonderful… This deceptively modest novel is the kind of book that will work on you long after you have put it down
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)
Anne Enright’s The Wren, The Wren is so good they named it twice, so good I read it twice – and read two different novels, because moral positions are incorrigibly plural in Enrightville
Gritty, sad, sly, riotous... Gem-packed language that fizzes like a sidewalk firecracker. A must-read (Margaret Atwood, author of THE HANDMAID'S TALE (via Twitter))
The Wren, The Wren is Anne Enright at her lyrical, storytelling best (Nicola Sturgeon)
This is the golden age of Irish prose fiction. Of our many prodigiously talented novelist, few have the all-encompassing deftness of touch of Anne Enright
One of my books of any year. It’s about womanhood, youth and that slow, painful, but joyous estrangement that emerges between mother and daughter as life runs its tumultuous course (Michael Magee)
A work of astounding ventriloquism and hard-won hope about women’s lives
All stars
Most relevant
It felt like she was speaking to my heart- women moving through the world so believable with glimmering revelations .

Incredible

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Loved it! Great readings. Fab to have the author herself reading - read with a certain dryness, I thought. Loved Carmel. Felt maternal concern for Nell. And maybe for Carmel too.

Great readings.

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I loved the writing of all characters. I was not completely sure what the story was about, apart from the ghost of the grandfather poet and Nell’s self discovery; I think it was about writing finally, shot through with beautiful birds.

the poems, the voices linked to the characters

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Beautiful writing, I think the book just wasn’t for me. It’s character driven and not much plot at all. I enjoyed the characters, wish they were explored a little deeper. Loved the ending. Narration is done very well.

The wren

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Took me a while to figure out what was going on but I persevered and I think I eventually got it.
Long rambling story, they all seemed to have an ‘ism’ and although some parts of their relationships were loving there was a lot of cruelty and major dysfunction. Just like a poet to state undying love but he leaves his wife and family just when they need him the most.
Some burst out laughing observations kept me going, amid the misery.

Relationship

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