Owls Do Cry

Janet Frame First published 1994

About this book

Set in provincial, pre-1940 New Zealand, this novel explores the Withers family and in particular Daphne. When one of Daphne's sisters, Francie, dies at the rubbish dump where the children search for treasure, a crisis is provoked which leads Daphne to a mental asylum where she is given shock treatment. Her voice from 'the Dead Room' haunts the novel with its poetic insights.

Subjects

alienation (social psychology)
biography
electroconvulsive therapy
families
fiction
fiction, general
fiction, historical
manners and customs
mental illness
mentally ill
new zealand authors
new zealand, fiction
new zealand women authors
nineteen forties
social life and customs