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The Secrets of the Huon Wren

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The Secrets of the Huon Wren

By: Claire van Ryn
Narrated by: Micaela Ellis, Zindzi Okenyo
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About this listen

 'A mesmerising tale of love, heartache and healing . . . I laughed, I cried, I was totally swept away.' SANDIE DOCKER

'Two women. Two journeys. A tender, powerfully wrought telling of love and loss before the high mountains and rolling hills of Tasmania's rural north-west.' ROBYN MUNDY

Launceston, 2019
Journalist Allira is writing a story for Folk magazine when she meets Nora, a nursing home resident with dementia and a doll cradled lovingly in her arms.

Caveside, 1953
Nora is a spirited teenage girl living beneath the Great Western Tiers in Tasmania's heartland. When she is swept up in an illicit romance with a charming Polish-German migrant, it tears her family apart.

Stories intertwined
As the two women form an unlikely friendship, Allira becomes helplessly drawn into the old woman's story. When Allira opens up to Nora about her own recent tragedy, the secrets embedded in the story of a carved wooden wren become the key to a life-changing discovery. This revelation from the past has the power to set them both free.

The Secrets of the Huon Wren is a lyrical and highly evocative story about two lives connected by a shared tragedy and a universal love.

'I was so invested in the story that my life just seemed to fall away around me.' GOOD READING

'This story is beautiful inside and out.' DAILY TELEGRAPH©2023 Claire van Ryn (P)2023 Penguin Random House Australia Audio Fiction Friendship Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Feel-Good Heartfelt Tear-jerking
All stars
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Wow! Claire has a wonderful ability to paint vivid pictures with words - demonstrated incredibly here in her debut novel. A story full of depth and heart that is completely relatable to real life. It feels like a true story. The Tasmanian setting is gorgeous, the characters are complex but appealing and the voice acting from Micaela Ellis and Zindzi Okenyo is absolutely fantastic. Normally the sort of book I might hand to my wife, but I’m so glad I took the time to listen myself! You won’t regret it either! 5 stars hands down.

A wonderful debut!

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I found this book very hard to read, it flits in and out of different years which I found confusing and hard to make sense of. Not my favourite book sadly but each to their own..

Very confusing book

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I struggled to finish the book. I thought the character portrayal was too black and white and lacked depth. For the type of book that it is, it was an easy read. I thought it was a bit like a soap opera, if that is your thing. But I wish the author all the best.

A light and easy read but two dimensional

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