The Thorn Birds is a robust romantic saga of a singular family the Clearys. It begins in the early 1900s when Paddy Cleary moves his wife Fiona, and their seven children to Drogheda, a vast Australian sheep station owned by his autocrat- ic older sister. It ends more than 50 years later when the only survivor of the third generation, the brilliant actress Justine O'Neill, divorces her life from the land.

The central figures in this sweeping story are the indomitable, beautiful Meggie, the only Cleary daughter, and the one man she truly loves, the stunningly handsome and ambitious priest, Ralph de Bricassart. Their lives are fatally linked, although they fight against their feelings. Only Drogheda itself claims Meggie more.
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