Description
Book SynopsisAn oriole sings to a dying father. A bleeding-heart dove saves the day. A crow wakes a woman’s resolve. Owls help a boy endure isolation. Cockatoos attend the laying of the dead. Always there are birds in these linked stories that pay homage to kindness amidst loss, grief, discord and displacement, from Australia to the Philippines, across cultures and species. When we encounter that snag in the breath, that shadow of a wing, we hope to remember kindness. Kindness cannot self-isolate. It moves both ways and all ways, like breath.
Trade Review"Merlinda Bobis is an utterly distinctive voice in Australian letters. In our ironic and cynical times, here are stories of heartfelt feeling fulsome, tender and unabashed in which grief and hope are equally things with feathers." Gail Jones, award-winning novelist
"These stories are beyond beautiful and deeply moving, raw, tender, brimming with love and pain, death and life. Like lit diamonds, to borrow a phrase from Bobiss own exquisite language. I love how birds are everywhere in attendance, signalling ancestral wisdom, pointing to the strength of the human spirit and its deep ties with all of life. I love how each story feels like a tonic for our time, illuminated from within by so much grace and kindness, it gives hope and inspires awe." Jennifer Ackerman, bestselling author of The Genius of Birds
