基本信息
書名：The Thorn Birds 荊棘鳥
難度：Lexile藍思閱讀指數990
作者：Colleen McCullough考琳·麥卡洛
齣版社名稱：Avon Books
齣版時間：1978
語種：英文
ISBN：9780380018178
商品尺寸：10.6 x 2.7 x 17.2 cm
包裝：簡裝
頁數：692

編輯推薦
The Thorn Birds《荊棘鳥》是澳大利亞當代作傢考琳·麥卡洛的成名作，這部時間跨度從1915年至1969年的澳大利亞傢族小說，有關夢想、掙紮、鬱積於胸的熱望和禁愛的傢世傳奇故事吸引瞭一代代讀者，被譽為澳大利亞的《飄》。
小說情節麯摺生動，結構嚴密精巧，文筆清新婉麗。在描寫荒蠻廣漠的澳大利業風光時，頗有蒼涼悲壯之美；同時女作傢對女人愛情心態的探索，又十分細膩感人。

本版本為簡裝便攜全英文版，文字難度不大，采用再生紙印刷，體積輕巧，方便隨身攜帶閱讀。
Now, twenty-five years after it first took the world by storm, Colleen McCullough's sweeping family saga of dreams, titanic struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian Outback returns to enthrall a new generation. As powerful, moving, and unforgettable as when it originally appeared, it remains a monumental literary achievement—a landmark novel to be read… and read again!
Review

“Beautiful… Compelling entertainment.”  —New York Times
“A heart-rending epic… truly marvelous.” —Chicago Tribune

內容簡介
The Thorn Birds《荊棘鳥》是一部澳大利亞的傢世小說，以女主人公梅吉和神父拉爾夫的愛情糾葛為主綫，描寫瞭剋利裏一傢三代人的故事，時間跨度長達半個多世紀。拉爾夫一心嚮往教會的權力，卻愛上瞭剋利裏傢的美麗少女梅吉。為瞭他追求的“上帝”，他拋棄瞭世俗的愛情，然而內心又極度矛盾和痛苦。以此為中心，剋利裏傢族十餘名成員的悲歡離閤也得以展現。
In the rugged Australian Outback, The Thorn Birds follows three generations of the extraordinary Cleary family through joy and sadness, bitter defeat and magnificent triumph—driven by their dreams, sustained by remarkable strength of character… and torn by dark passions, violence and a scandalous family legacy of forbidden love. 

作者簡介
考琳·麥卡洛（Colleen McCullough），澳大利亞當代著名作傢，1937年6月1日生於澳大利亞新南威爾士州的惠靈頓。原先是一名品學兼優的醫科學生，不甘心一輩子做醫生和研究，從小喜歡寫作的她嘗試寫作，她的第一部小說是1974年齣版的《Tim》。
1977年，考琳·麥卡洛利用業餘時間創作的《荊棘鳥》齣版，小說一問世，長列《紐約時報》暢銷書排行榜59周，並很快在全球暢銷3000萬冊。包括《荊棘鳥》在內，考琳·麥卡洛一共寫瞭25部小說，還創作瞭傳記，寫散文或雜文，甚至寫音樂劇。
考琳·麥卡洛自1983年嫁給瞭諾福剋島人Ric Robinson 之後，她就一直生活在這個遠離悉尼和澳大利亞本土的島嶼，島上居民隻有2000多人。
2015年1月29日，考琳·麥卡洛因腎衰竭在澳大利亞諾福剋島的醫院去世， 享年77歲。
Colleen McCullough was born in Australia. A neuropathologist, she established the department of neurophysiology at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney before working as a researcher and teacher at Yale Medical School for ten years. Her writing career began with the publication of Tim, followed by The Thorn Birds, a record-breaking international bestseller. She lives on Norfolk Island in the South Pacific with her husband, Ric Robinson. 

目錄
ONE 1915-1917   Meggie
TWO 1921-1928   Ralph
THREE 1929-1932   Paddy
FOUR 1933-1938   Luke
FIVE 1938-1953   Fee
SIX 1954-1965   Dane
SEVEN 1965-1969   Justine

精彩書摘
On December 8th, 1915, Meggie Cleary had her fourth birthday. After the breakfast dishes were put away her mother silently thrust a brown paper parcel into her arms and ordered her outside. So Meggie squatted down behind the gorse bush next to the front gate and tugged impatiently. Her lingers were clumsy, the wrapping heavy ; it smelled faintly of the Wahine general store, which told her that whatever lay inside the parcel had miraculously been bought, not homemade or donated.
Something fine and mistily gold began to poke through a comer; she attacked the paper faster, peeling it away in long, ragged strips.
“Agnes! Oh, Agnes!” she said lovingly, blinking at the doll lying there in a tattered nest.
A miracle indeed. Only once in her life had Meggie been into Wahine; all the way back in May, because she had been a very good girl. So perched in the buggy beside her mother, on her best behavior, she had been too excited to see or remember much. Except for Agnes, the beautiful doll sitting on the store counter, dressed in a crinoline of pink satin with cream lace frills all over it. Right then and there in her mind she had christened it Agnes, the only name she knew elegant enough for such a peerless creature. Yet over the suing months her yearning after Agnes contained
nothing of hope; Meggie didn't own a doll and had no idea little girls and dolls belonged together. She played happily with the whistles and slingshots and battered soldiers her brothers discarded, got her hands dirty and her boots muddy.
It never occurred to her that Agnes was to play with. Stroking the bright pink folds of the dress, grander than any she had ever seen on a human woman, she picked Agnes up tenderly. The doll had jointed arms and legs which could be moved anywhere; even her neck and tiny, shapely waist were jointed. Her golden hair was exquisitely dressed in a high pompadour studded with pearls, her pale bosom peeped out of a foaming fichu of cream lace fastened with a pearl pin. The finely painted bone china face was beautiful, left unglazed to give the delicately tinted skin a natural matte texture. Astonishingly lifelike blue eyes shone between lashes of real hair, their irises streaked and circled with a darker blue; fascinated, Meggie discovered that when Agnes lay back far enough, her eyes closed. High on one faintly flushed cheek she had a black beauty mark, and her dusky mouth was parted slightly to show tiny white teeth. Meggie put the doll gently on her lap, crossed her feet under her comfortably, and sat just looking.