It is in continuation of a character’s growth - the accomplishment of life after one’s wish has been realized.” Many people at the group thought the opposite and that the ending was very sad, and some wished that sprout could have lived on. The novel ends with Sprout discovering that the Weasel is a mother as well, and allowing herself to be caught by the weasel so that Greentop may roam free without fear, and so that the weasel’s babies can also grow up. Greentop eventually joins other ducks and leaves Sprout behind. Over time her duckling grows up and she names him Greentop after his feathers. She takes it back to the farm but is once again met with hostility so she raises the duckling herself in the wild, fighting off the weasel regularly and even taking its eye in one fight. After Stragglers death the egg hatches to reveal a duckling, though Sprout doesn’t know this. The Mallard, called Straggler, brings her fish very day whilst she sits on the egg and wards off the weasel at night, eventually giving his life in a fight with it. She sits on it and warms it, not knowing where it has come from. After attempting to live in the shelter of the farm once more, and being kicked out by the other animals, Sprout goes back to the wild and finds an untended egg. A weasel tries to eat her but she is saved by a duck, the only mallard from her farm, considered somewhat of an outcast. Sprout somehow manages to survive being culled and wakes up in a pit of dead chickens. She wants to be free and dreams of sitting on one of her eggs until it hatches, but she stops laying healthy eggs and the farmers decide to cull her. The story centres around Sprout, a self-named hen who has lived in a coop her entire life, laying eggs that get taken away by farmers. It has been described as a fable for our time and an anthem for freedom. It was different from our usual books, more simple, but at the same time very subtle and complex. This week the international book club met and discussed ‘The Hen who dreamed she could fly’ by Korean author Sun-Mi Hwang.

The hen who dreamed she could fly