'Owls Do Cry remains innovative and relevant' GUARDIAN
'Janet Frame was a unique and troubled soul whose luminous words are the more precious' HILARY MANTEL
'Her dark, eloquent song captured my heart ' JANE CAMPION
Owls Do Cry is the story of the Withers family: Francie, soon to leave school to start work at the woollen mills; Toby, whose days are marred by the velvet cloak of epilepsy; Chicks, the baby of the family; and Daphne, whose rich, poetic imagination condemns her to a life in institutions.
It is one of the classics of New Zealand literature and has remained in print continuously for fifty years. A fiftieth anniversary edition was published in 2007.
Owls Do Cry is Janet Frame's first novel. She describes her idea behind it in the second volume of her autobiography:
'Pictures of great treasure in the midst of sadness and waste haunted me and I began to think, in fiction, of a childhood, home life, hospital life, using people known to me as a base for main characters, and inventing minor characters'
Regarded by many as one of the best New Zealand novels published, Owls Do Cry forms a loose trilogy with her two subsequent novels, Faces in the Water and The Edge of the Alphabet.
ISBN: | 9780349006673 |
Publication date: | 14th January 2016 |
Author: | Janet Frame |
Publisher: | Virago an imprint of Little, Brown |
Format: | Paperback |
Pagination: | 256 pages |
Series: | Virago Modern Classics |
Genres: |
Modern and Contemporary Fiction Family Drama General Fiction |