Bird Life
Anna Smaill
(Author)
Description
The second novel by Booker Prize-longlisted author Anna Smaill. A lyrical and ambitious exploration of madness and what it is like to experience the world differently.
In Ueno Park, Tokyo, as workers and tourists gather for lunch, the pollen blows, a fountain erupts, pigeons scatter, and two women meet, changing the course of one another's lives.
Dinah has come to Japan from New Zealand to teach English and grieve the death of her brother, Michael, a troubled genius who was able to channel his problems into music as a classical pianist--until he wasn't. In the seemingly empty, eerie apartment block where Dinah has been housed, she sees Michael everywhere, even as she feels his absence sharply.
Yasuko is polished, precise, and keenly observant--of her students and colleagues at the language school, and of the natural world. When she was thirteen, animals began to speak to her, to tell her things she did not always want to hear. She has suppressed these powers for many years, but sometimes she allows them to resurface, to the dismay of her adult son, Jun. One day, she returns home, and Jun has gone. Even her special gifts cannot bring him back.
As these two women deal with their individual traumas, they form an unlikely friendship in which each will help the other to see a different possible world, as Smaill teases out the tension between our internal and external lives and asks what we lose by having to choose between them.
Product Details
| Publisher | Scribe Us |
| Publish Date | January 02, 2024 |
| Pages | 304 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Paperback / softback |
| EAN/UPC | 9781957363547 |
| Dimensions | 8.2 X 5.3 X 1.0 inches | 0.7 pounds |
About the Author
Anna Smaill is a poet and novelist. She was born in Auckland, New Zealand and lived in Tokyo for two years before moving to the United Kingdom where she completed a PhD at University College London. In 2015, she published her debut novel, The Chimes, which won the World Fantasy Award and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. She lives on Wellington's south coast with her husband and their two children.
Reviews
"Magic, mental illness, and sorrow drive this powerful offering ... Smaill excels equally at emotional drama, magical realism, and horror. Readers will find much to love."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Bird Life is a deeply affecting novel, transcending cultural barriers while reaching through them to the essentially human."
--David Mills, The Times
"A playful study of genius, grief, and special powers."
--Lloyd Green, The Guardian
"A beautifully lyrical tale of loss, grief, and madness, whose central characters are so deftly drawn that you find yourself breathlessly following them down. Magically strange yet horribly real."
--Mat Osman, bassist of Suede and author of The Ghost Theatre
"Bird Life is an astonishing book about grief, beauty, and survival ... the writing enters your bloodstream like a strange and wonderful drug."
--Emily Perkins, author of Lioness
"The two women at the center of Anna Smaill's lovely, disconcerting novel Bird Life feel certain something is about to happen--something that's about to change everything. These kinds of proclamations in a novel can feel unfulfillable, but when Dinah and Yasuko finally do meet, the transformations each affects upon the other are surprising, consuming, and satisfying. Smaill's crystalline prose brings us inside each of their minds as they maneuver through a thoroughly modern cityscape into which the natural world is forever making incursions. An unusual, empathetic, and compulsively readable tale."
--Dan Kois, author of Vintage Contemporaries
"[Bird Life is] as richly sensory and exquisite as Smaill's previous novel, The Chimes. The world tilts and becomes strange and marvellous through her eyes."
--Lucy Treloar, author of Wolfe Island
"Smaill writes compellingly about the all-consuming nature of grief and the afterlife of those left behind. She also absorbingly evokes Yasuko's mental illness, which sees her consulting beetles and birds for their counsel."
--Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail
"[E]lliptical, poetic ... [A]n evocative and sensitive depiction of mental distress and the importance of perseverance ... The key message of this subtle book: Though it might be difficult to detect them during times of hardship, glimmers of hope are always visible if one knows where to look."
--Bookpage
"Bird Life is immersive, beautifully constructed and fascinating in its portrayal of love and sorrow and the ways in which a mind constructs its world. It's a fresh, beautifully written book, perfect for a reader looking for something out of the ordinary."
--Louise Ward, NZ Herald
"Smaill's sentences are the lifeblood of Bird Life. They are smoother and cooler than those in The Chimes, signalling a dazzling new style. Her metaphors and similes expose the magic of the seemingly insignificant rhythms of life ... Smaill captures the strange contours of the mind, body and world around us. Bird Life is disquieting and comforting in equal measure."
--Fiona Murphy, The Saturday Paper
"While this might appear like yet another novel that might wallow in mawkish sentimentality or indie movie miserablism, it is neither. Bird Life couples together, with studious brilliance, a deft use of conventional narrative devices and gorgeous polished prose."
--Driftless Area Review
Praise for The Chimes:
"Something strikingly new."
--Lit Hub
"Smaill's clever use of musical terms in her characters' speech adds to the immersive quality of the work, and her melodious prose lures the reader like a pied piper. With literary trappings but a solidly speculative heart, The Chimes is a cantata of pure delight."
--Jaclyn Fulwood Shelf Awareness, starred review
"Smaill is a classically trained musician--a violinist, to be precise--and it shows on every page of The Chimes. Not only does music saturate the book's setting, it fills its themes and prose ... For all the poetry and lyricism, The Chimes is a solid, suspenseful adventure story at heart, complete with a quest, a prophecy, and a simmering, deeply moving romance ... lucid yet dreamlike writing pulls it through. Not to mention her deft, tender characterization ... [and] profound ideas and images echoing throughout"
--NPR Books
"Entrancingly poetic and engagingly plotted, this is a story that brims with heart and soul.."
--Kirkus Reviews
"To call The Chimes striking is, I dare say, to underplay what might be the most distinctive debut of the decade."
--Tor.com
"One of a kind, both in its dystopian landscape and use of gorgeous language throughout ... Fans of the eloquence and imagery of Jeff VanderMeer's 'Southern Reach' trilogy and the spare desolation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road will adore this original work."
--Megan McArdle, Library Journal, starred review, Debut of the Month
"A highly original dystopian masterpiece, an intricately imagined, exquisitely invoked world in which music instills order and ravages individuality ... Smaill is a poet and a classically trained violinist, and both these skills shine in this lyrical novel steeped in the language of music ... clearly marking her as an exciting new writer to watch."
--Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March
"Cleverly orchestrated and poignantly conveyed throughout."
--The Guardian
"The Chimes is a remarkable debut. It's inventive, beautifully written, and completely absorbing. I highly recommend it."
--Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds
"Superb ... intriguing, ambitious, and strikingly written."
--James Kidd, Independent on Sunday
"The novel is hypnotic, melancholic and requires concentration, but it builds to an incredibly tense and emotionally satisfying climax that rewards all the effort."
--Elle Magazine
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