The Thorn Birds

#130 in Romance

The Thorn Birds

Colleen McCullough

First published 1977Original language EN

7.87.8 / 10
Score out of 10184 ratingsConfidence 56%: this much of the score is the readers’ own
#130 of 200 in Romance ahead of 35% of the category
599
Pages
about 11 h
Reading time

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Set in · Colleen McCullough
Australia
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About the book

The Thorn Birds is a 1977 novel by Australian author Colleen McCullough. Set primarily on Drogheda—a fictional sheep station in the Australian Outback named after Drogheda, Ireland—the story focuses on the Cleary family and spans 1915 to 1969. The novel is the best-selling book in Australian history and has sold over 33 million copies worldwide.

Description: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Where the score comes from

The sources average 7.9 across 184 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 56% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Romance average of 7.6. That is how 7.8 comes out.

SourceAverageRatingsWeight
Open Library7.413 7%
Hardcover7.9171 93%

Frequently asked

How long is The Thorn Birds?

It has 599 pages — longer than 85% of the ranked books in Romance.

In this book

Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.

If you liked this

Same shelf — Romance — with scores between 7.7 and 7.8, closest to this book.