Anne Enright: The Wren, The Wren

Described by The Guardian as maybe her best novel yet, The Wren, The Wren is, like so much of Enright’s work, a supple scrutiny of familial relationships – in this case the fraught love between Nell and her mother, Carmel. But it is also a meditation on this other way of connecting – or failing to connect – through language. Nell is a young woman with adventure on her mind. As she sets out into the world, she finds her family history hard to escape. For her mother, Carmel, Nell’s leaving home opens a space in her heart, where the turmoil of a lifetime begins to churn. Over them both falls the long shadow of Carmel’s famous father, an Irish poet of beautiful words and brutal actions. Join Booker Prize winner Anne Enright as she talks to Merve Emre, Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University and contributing writer at The New Yorker. 

Anne Enright with Merve Emre

€20