The Wren, the Wren

The Wren, the Wren by Anne Enright

Anne Enright's recent novel The Wren, the Wren is a mesmerising piece of writing that really resonated with me on a personal level; so many little details had me nodding with recognition. There's a moment in Alan Bennett's The History Boys where a character talks about that moment when you feel as if an author or character is reaching out to you from the pages with a moment of human recognition and understanding. I felt like this several times whilst reading this book. I am sure that others will have this experience too.

The Wren, the Wren has been deservedly shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. It follows three generations of an Irish family and their interactions: encompassing the absent father (a poet), his daughter and her relationships, both romantic and maternal. The novel felt similar in mood (although not in context) to Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, the kind of novel whose atmosphere seeps into you while you are held in its thrall.

For a reader whose nickname from childhood has been Wren, it felt highly pertinent.

Find The Wren, the Wren by Anne Enright

Jenny