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Whitethorn Woods  By  cover art

Whitethorn Woods

By: Maeve Binchy
Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin
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Publisher's summary

“WHITETHORN WOODS is Binchy’s best read in a decade . . . Few contemporary novelists match Binchy’s gift for giving us the world through her characters’ eyes.”
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

Maeve Binchy once again brings us an enchanting book full of the wit, warmth, and wisdom that have made her one of the most beloved and widely followed writers at work today.

When a new highway threatens to bypass the town of Rossmore and cut through Whitethorn Woods, everyone has a passionate opinion about whether the town will benefit or suffer. But young Father Flynn is most concerned with the fate of St. Ann’s Well, which is set at the edge of the woods and slated for destruction. People have been coming to St. Ann’s for generations to share their dreams and fears, and to speak their prayers. Some believe it to be a place of true spiritual power, demanding protection; others think it’s a mere magnet for superstitions, easily sacrificed.

Not knowing which faction to favor, Father Flynn listens to all those caught up in the conflict, and these are the voices we hear in the stories of Whitethorn Woods–men and women deciding between the traditions of the past and the promises of the future, ordinary people brought vividly to life by Binchy’s generosity and empathy, and in the vivacity and surprise of her storytelling.

Maeve Binchy is at the very top of her form in this irresistible tale.

©2006 Maeve Binchy (P)2007 Random House Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House Inc.

Critic reviews

“Binchy has an accessible, comfortable writing style and fine storytelling ability . . . [Her] stories of an Ireland in transition have pleased readers for years.”–Joan Hinkemeyer, Rocky Mountain News

“Maeve Binchy is a benevolent god of a novelist . . . Whitethorn Woods draws on her strengths: She can channel Irish voices with the best of them, and each of those voices has its own twisting story to tell . . . often with verve and humor.”–Margaret Quamme, Columbus Dispatch

Whitethorn Woods is a tour-de-force for Binchy, who seamlessly inhabits all these narrators and gets their individual voices pitch-perfect . . . By the time you arrive at the last page, you’ll feel you know virtually everyone in [this] little corner of Ireland . . . Binchy is in top form.”–Melinda Bargreen, Seattle Times

What listeners say about Whitethorn Woods

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Whitetorn Woods

Maeve Benchy has done it again! This is a beautiful story, I laughed out loud, teared up and was sorry when the story was over.

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