"Gaines' melding of sensual landscapes with ruminations on political history and environmental devastation will be a treat for conservationists, and her critique of globalization and portrayal of sibling rivalry are particularly well rendered. Barbara Kingsolver fans will want to take a look."

--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"Gaines' novel is deeply researched, and the reader will walk away with an understanding of not only Uruguay's repressive regimes, but also biomes, bird preservation, and more."

--KIRKUS REVIEWS

"Well-written novels that feature science (but aren't science fiction) are few and far between, and this work is a welcome addition next to Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer or Flight Behavior."

--LIBRARY JOURNAL

"A rich portrait of a country and its people, relayed with detail and wonder, thanks to a naturalist's eye."

--FOREWORD REVIEWS

"Masterful and beautifully wrought."

--FOUR CORNERS FREE PRESS

"Gorgeous, smart, and surprising, Gaines' family saga takes us into the large world of nations and politics, but also the microscopic world of mud and microbes. Tender and powerful. Also with birds!"

--KAREN JOY FOWLER, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

"The personal is political: if anybody has ever wondered what this insight means then I recommend Accidentals as an enchanting path toward understanding. A profound and moving experience awaits the reader."

--REBECCA NEWBERGER GOLDSTEIN, author of Plato at the Googleplex

"In clean, beautiful prose and with an environmental sensibility evocative of Stegner, Accidentals sings with the vibrancy of the living world...erudite and emotionally compelling, suffused with science and natural history."

--CHRISTIAN KIEFER, author of Phantoms

"An intimate family story with an astonishingly epic scope. Alive with history, politics, science, romance, and birds, it is as entertaining as it is intelligent, as beautiful as it is wise. Gabe's evolution from a passive observer to the passionate creator of his own destiny is a life-changing experience not only for him, but for readers as well."

--JEAN HEGLAND, author of Still Time and Windfalls

"As a conservation biologist, as well as an Uruguayan immigrant and mother of two first-generation Americans, I was as moved by the Quiroga family's layers of history, secrets, and struggles around land, politics, and love, as I was intrigued by the beautiful depictions of birds and the musings on evolution and extinction. This is a novel I would like to share with my daughters someday!"

--ANA LUZ PORZECANSKI, Director of the Center for Biodiversity & Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History

"Deeply moving and powerful."

--SHERYL COTLEUR, Copperfield's books