Thorn Birds...Colleen Mccullough

There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its life,
more sweetly than any other creature on the face of this earth.
From the moment it leaves its nest it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one .
Then singing among the savage branches.
It impales itself upon the longest, sharpest one.
And, dying, it rises above its own agony to out-carol the lark and the nightingale .
One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and God in His Heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain….
Or so says the legend.