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  • Published: 31 July 2017
  • ISBN: 9781742537740
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 320

Whipbird




No holds are barred as the Cleary family attempts to put long-held tensions behind them to celebrate a milestone. What could possibly go wrong?

Kungadgee, Victoria, Australia. A weekend in late November, 2014. At Hugh and Christine Cleary’s new vineyard, Whipbird, six generations of the Cleary family are coming together from far and wide to celebrate the 160th anniversary of the arrival of their ancestor Conor Cleary from Ireland. Hugh has been meticulously planning the event for months – a chance to proudly showcase Whipbird to the extended clan. Some of these family members know each other; some don’t.

As the wine flows, it promises to be an eventful couple of days.

Comic, topical, honest, sharply intelligent, and, above all, sympathetic, Robert Drewe’s exhilarating new novel tells a classic Australian family saga as it has never been told before.

  • Published: 31 July 2017
  • ISBN: 9781742537740
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 320

About the author

Robert Drewe

Robert Drewe is the author of eight novels, four books of short stories, two plays, two memoirs and four other works of non-fiction. His work has been widely translated, won national and international prizes and been adapted for film, television, theatre and radio.

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Praise for Whipbird

Every so often someone writes fiction that ravishes the popular imagination. Robert Drewe … has done it again in Whipbird, an absolutely compelling read and also something more. Like Tsiolkas’s The Slap, it has the great advantage of both a soap element and a massive ensemble effect, beautifully coordinated ... It's a kind of Canterbury Tales standing still, and it's a winner.

The Saturday Paper

There's satire, revelation and redemption aplenty in Robert Drewe's latest novel.

Digby Hildreth, Verandah Magazine

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Whipbird book club notes

Transport your book club to a vineyard setting with Robert Drewe’s topical-yet-comic family saga Whipbird.