I read Claire van Ryn’s first book last year and really enjoyed it, so when I got the opportunity to read her latest release “Where the Birds Call her Name” I jumped at the chance. And I was not disappointed.

Alternating between Saskia in 2023, and Greta in 1968, it is an amazing journey of discovery. Starting in Broome, Western Australia, Saskia’s mother, Kiki, passes away on the first page. When the will is read Saskia has been left Kiki’s old caravan. When cleaning the van for sale an old journal of Kiki’s is discovered along with a ferry ticket for Tasmania dated for a few months time. Stressed out, Saskia decides to take time off from her work as a teacher, leave her workaholic husband to fend for himself for a few months and drive with her daughter Anouka to Stanley in Tasmania to find out about her mother’s family; and why her mother changed her name and never mentioned her childhood.

The story switches between sixteen-year-old Greta in this tiny little town in the north west of Tasmania and Saskia and Anouka driving from Broome to Stanley. Excerpts from the diary link the two time periods until eventually the past leads to the present, secrets are revealed and life changing decisions are made.

The two timelines are connected by more than Kiki/Greta and Saskia. There are the birds. Oh the birds, be still my beating heart. As a bird lover and watcher the birds really made the book for me. Kiki learned her love of birds and their environment from her mother and, in turn, passed this love onto Saskia and Anouka. Scattered between the chapters are descriptions of Australian birds, specifically Tasmanian birds. In fact birds appear all through the book as the characters take joy at their appearance. And birds are the link between the past and the present.

If you love birds, and love family relationships then “Where the Birds Call her Name” is for you.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Australia for providing an advanced copy of this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own

Sumptuous, hopeful, heartbreaking yet joyous.

A gorgeous story blending fact and fiction, split in time and narrator between 1968 and 2023. Saskia’s mum - Kiki/Greta - dies and leaves her, her caravan in her will, which on the surface makes little sense. And then Saskia discovers a journal more about her mum’s teen years in Tasmania, a past never spoken of.

Greta’s sixteenth year in Stanley, Tasmania is on the surface typical, albeit filled with taxidermy. But inside her home, her household is full of secrets.

The narratives draw together and unfold as Saskia and her daughter travel in the caravan from their home in Broome, to Stanley Tasmania.

A wonderful, slow starting novel that mid way through I couldn’t put down.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Penguin Random House Australia for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.