Other Birds

Product Information

After Zoey’s mom died, she grew up in a house that never felt like a home to her. However, she finds a home on Mallow Island. What makes up the idea of home for Zoey? What is your idea of home? Is it a place, or people that make a home? Sarah Addison Allen has reminded me once again why I love Magical Realism so much. How can I not love a book whose main character has an invisible bird named Pigeon and who resides in a condo complex with several ghosts and some curious little turquoise birds called dellawisps? It’s not really a question, because of course I’m going to love that!! Like TJ Klune, Allen captures the human spirit so well in a way that both charms and makes you feel for all the characters, while gently giving focus to some pretty heavy topics - in this case childhood trauma and healing old wounds. Grab a cup of pumpkin spice chai and curl up with this book. Zoey and her invisible bird, Pigeon are headed to Mallow Island to the condo Zoey’s mom left her when she passed away. Sweet and twisty!❤️ A master of her craft, Sarah Addison Allen draws you in with her whimsy and poetic language, only to lay bare the deep emotional truths of being human. Children, don’t hold on to old love so hard you forget to live. Old love isn’t the only love you’ll ever have. And I can tell you from this side that it never really goes away, anyway. So let go. Whatever you’re holding on to, let go.”

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen | Goodreads

Barnes & Noble - #PouredOver: Sarah Addison Allen on OTHER BIRDS by Allison Gavilets – Video – 46:06 Lucy's story, when you finally get to read it, will make you moan: this brutal, harsh world spares no one, it seems. Everyone looked the other way and young lives were damaged forever. New York TimesBestselling novelist Sarah Addison Allen brings the full flavor of her southern upbringing to bear on her fiction -- a captivating blend of magical realism, heartwarming romance, and small-town sensibility. Born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Sarah grew up with a love of books and an appreciation of good food (she credits her journalist father for the former and her mother, a fabulous cook, for the latter). In college, she majored in literature - because, as she puts it, "I thought it was amazing that I could get a diploma just for reading fiction. It was like being able to major in eating chocolate." I want to thank Netgalley, and St. Martin's Press, for the copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

I truly enjoyed Other Birds, looked forward to reading it every day. There are some lovely characters in here, people you will enjoy getting to hang with, however briefly. Allen applies magical realism to great effect, illuminating the conflicts the characters are confronting. In addition, there is also a payload of wisdom about finding or creating one’s tribe, the significance of hanging on too long or too hard to the past, and the importance of learning our history and carrying forward our stories. Other Birds is a very sweet satisfying read We got wings we can’t see, Camille used to say. We were made to fly away. There’s a whimsical charm to this story, without being twee, set against what seems like an almost sinister aura, a darker, unveiled story. Frasier, the old man knows everyone in the building, getting used to connect with the birds and ghosts, hiding his own skeletons in the closet. With a dash of her signature magic, Allen dishes up a touching story that hits the sweet spot between heartache and healing.

OTHER BIRDS | Kirkus Reviews

Born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Allen grew up with a love of books and an appreciation of good food (she credits her journalist father for the former and her mother, a fabulous cook, for the latter). In college, she majored in literature -- because, as she puts it, "I thought it was amazing that I could get a diploma just for reading fiction. It was like being able to major in eating chocolate." I'm a voracious reader from North Carolina currently traveling the United States with my husband and reviewing books as the mood strikes. I'll read almost anything--contemporary fiction, the classics, fantasy, historical fiction, horror, adult, young adult, middle grade... If it looks like an interesting story, I'm game!

Sarah Addison Allen

Right off the coast of South Carolina, on Mallow Island, The Dellawisp sits—a stunning old cobblestone building shaped like a horseshoe, and named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy. Foster, Mary (March 14, 2010). "Review: 'Chased the Moon' offers light reading". UT San Diego . Retrieved 3 November 2013. Food is inextricably linked to the people and places in our lives, and by recreating a memorable meal we can feel reconnected to our past. Mac expresses love through food, as Camille once did for him. For example, he invites Charlotte and Zoey to his restaurant Charlotte, Mac, Zoey and Oliver were all on a trajectory to finding family, acceptance and ultimately love in the oddball Dellawisp community. Frasier's employer was the unwitting master hand that set the stage years ago when he gave the mentally unwell Lizbeth a job and a place to live in the Dellawisp condominium complex that Frasier managed. Frasier saw a kindred tortured spirit in Lizbeth's young son, Oliver.