The wren, the wren

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024WINNER OF THE WRITERS’ PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024Carmel had been alone all her life.

The baby knew this. They looked at each other, and all of time was there.

The baby knew how vast her mother's loneliness had been. ‘A magnificent novel’ SALLY ROONEYNell 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.

Over them both falls the long shadow of Carmel’s famous father, an Irish poet of beautiful words and brutal actions. From our greatest chronicler of family life, The Wren, The Wren is a story of the love that can unite us, and the individual acts that threaten this vital bond. ‘A triumph…treasure it’ SUNDAY TIMES‘One of the great living writers on the subject of family’ NEW YORK TIMES‘A must-read’ MARGARET ATWOOD (on Twitter)‘Might just be Anne Enright’s best yet’ LOUISE KENNEDY*A SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER, GUARDIAN, TLS, HARPER’S BAZAAR, NEW STATESMAN, THE NEW YORKER, TIME AND WASHINGTON POST BOOK OF THE YEAR*