# Owls Do Cry

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/janet-frame/owls-do-cry/9780349020914

JSON version (same data): https://www.bookquiver.com/janet-frame/owls-do-cry/9780349020914.json

![Owls Do Cry](https://quivercdn.com/covers/virago/janet-frame/owls-do-cry_978-03-4902-091-4.jpg?v=2026-04-29%2002%3A07%3A02)

- Book: [Owls Do Cry](https://www.bookquiver.com/janet-frame/owls-do-cry) ([Owls Do Cry.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/janet-frame/owls-do-cry.md))
- Authors: [Janet Frame](https://www.bookquiver.com/janet-frame)
- Publisher: virago
- ISBN: 978-03-4902-091-4
- Published: 2026-01-22
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

'Janet Frame was a unique and troubled soul whose luminous words are the more precious' HILARY MANTEL 'Her dark, eloquent song captured my heart' JANE CAMPION 'All my preoccupations as a writer - my notions of home, beauty, madness of sorts and longing - come from her' MEG MASON There is nothing in the world the matter with me, except that I have been bathed in a trough and dipped under a waterfall and the pine-needles picked from my scars. . . This is the story of the Withers family: Francie, soon to leave school to start work at the woollen mills; Toby, whose days are marred by the velvet cloak of epilepsy; Chicks, the baby of the family; and Daphne, whose rich poetic way of seeing the world leads to a heartbreaking life in institutions. A dazzling, fierce cry of darkness and joy, Janet Frame's debut novel is a poetic masterpiece and a timeless classic of New Zealand literature. INTRODUCED BY MARGARET DRABBLE 'The first great New Zealand novel and a modernist masterpiece . . . the book's immense power to unnerve, astonish and impress endures' Guardian