Perhaps Anne Enright’s best book and that’s very high praise. A wonderfully moving, insightful and touching story of three generations- grandmother, mother, daughter- their lives in Ireland, the influence of a place and a poet.

Anne Enright has a unique writing style and in her latest novel ,The Wren, the wren, she narrates the intergenerational angst of one family with a famous father who was a poet and the complex relationship between Carmel his daughter and Nell, her daughter. Interspersed with poems – it is a tale of loss, lament and love. A lyrical masterpiece.

A gorgeous, exquisitely crafted story about generations of women in a family and what they pass on to each other. Told first from the point of view of Nell, and then Carmel, her mother, this is a complex story of relationships and love in many forms. At the beginning of the story, Nell is trapped in an obsessive relationship with a young man who wants to humiliate her. As she works through what is happening to her we dive back into Carmel's life and the shadow cast over it by her father, a feckless, minor poet who lived for romance but wasn't very good at reality. From here we spider out into the women's relationships with their mothers, sisters and other female acquaintances. Each relationship is like a conversation or exploration of what it is to be a woman and how we situate ourselves as individuals when so many other roles are pulling us in different directions. I loved this.

A poignant mother and daughter read which also examines the impact of a neglectful father on the lives of his daughter and granddaughter.
Carmel is reluctant to remember her beloved Dadda, an Irish poet inspired by nature. She was Phil Mcdaragh's favourite daughter and inspired his poem The Wren, The Wren. Carmel's memories are blurred by an unpleasant recollection of her father losing his watch, and pulling the sheets off his cancer stricken wife Terry, as if he thought she was hiding the watch., Carmel is often accused of having no imagination, of being very black and white. She adores daughter Nell but find it hard to show affection.
Nell, Carmel's daughter, feels adrift in life. She is under the thrall of a coercive man and unable to find satisfaction in her work. She knows her grandfather via his poems and her aunt Imelda, who attends the occasional honours ceremony.
Carmel rediscovers Phil via YouTube, and Nell makes some discoveries of her own, including friendship with the American he married after Terry, when she was 22.
We also hear the haunting voice of Phil himself as he describes a traumatic childhood incident where he witnessed organised badger baiting, leading indirectly to his love for nature. It's interesting to hear him because neglectful fathers are often demonised in books without any right of reply. But often, says the theory of nature/nurture, they may have had a difficult upbringing themselves.
I've never read Anne Enright's books before and am keen to read more of her delicate and multilayered writing.

This is a beautiful lyrical book about a mother daughter relationship told through the voices of millennial Nell, her mother Carmel and occasionally Carmel’s erstwhile father, Phil.
What I loved about the book was its beautifully sharp and accurate insights into each character, their personalities and opinion of each other. The poet, Phil looms large throughout the story, the effect of his ego and self absorption being felt many years after his death.