Cover Reveal: Where the Birds Call Her Name

I am so utterly thrilled to share with you the cover of my next book Where the Birds Call Her Name.

Isn’t she beautiful? I’m in love with the native flora, the colour palette and, of course, that gorgeous white-faced heron which is a key bird in the novel’s plot and themes.

This wonderful cover could not have been achieved without the Penguin Random House team, with an extra special mention to designer Nikki Townsend and publisher Ali Watts who have worked tirelessly to ensure it came together just perfectly.

This, my second novel, will be available from March 4, 2025, at your favourite bookshop, online bookstores and as ebook and audiobook.

I’m also excited to share the blurb…

Where the Birds Call Her Name

Broome 2023: When Saskia’s free-spirited mother leaves her a caravan in her will, it doesn’t make sense. Saskia is a schoolteacher, tied to plans and schedules, even if they are beginning to feel restrictive. Then she finds clues in the van about her mother’s mysterious past, setting her on a journey to Tasmania with her young daughter Anouk, who shares her late grandmother’s fascination with birds.

In 1968, teenager Greta De Winter seeks solace in the Stanley wetlands, a swamp that attracts all manner of wildlife. Her father is the local councillor and her mother a taxidermist, working to create bird dioramas for the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. But while the De Winter household seems harmless from the outside, a dark secret hides within.

When Saskia and Anouk arrive in Stanley, they search for the missing pieces to the puzzle of Greta’s tragic childhood. In the process of uncovering her family history, Saskia realises that her mother’s final act might also enable her to rediscover who she really is, and what she is truly capable of.

Set in the breathtaking landscape of Tasmania’s majestic north-west, this is a moving and highly evocative novel of family bonds and betrayals, by the bestselling author of The Secrets of the Huon Wren.

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I hope that gives enough of a teaser to make you want to run down to your local bookshop and purchase it as soon as it hits the shelves! In the meantime, I’ve just sent the final draft away for typesetting (that’s where the text is put on the page and all the fonts and formatting is applied), and I have another very exciting element to this book coming together in the background. You’re going to LOVE it… but I can’t reveal anything just yet. Don’t you hate it when people do that?

Thank you for your love and support of my writing journey.

I’ll finish with some photos from the recent Tamar Valley Writers Festival event with the lovely Annette Higgs (On a Bright Hillside in Paradise, Penguin Random House, 2023). We had our Writing Family, History and the Tasmanian Landscape talk on Thursday at Peppers Silo Hotel in Launceston. Then, the next day, we walked Higgs Track to Lady Lake Hut, mainly because Annette’s ancestors are responsible for cutting the track back in the day, and she’d not yet walked it herself. We rectified that! But wow, it’s a steep walk… I was still feeling it in my calves days later.

Happy reading, writing and adventuring, friends!

Claire
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