In this âvividâŚlovely and invitingâ (The New York Times) coming-of-age memoirâthe âbest piece of nature writing since H Is for Hawkâ (Neil Gaiman)âa young man saves a baby magpie as his estranged father is dying, only to find that caring for the bird saves him.
This is a story of two men who could talk to birdsâbut were completely incapable of talking to each other.
A father who fled from his family in the dead of night, and the jackdaw he raised like a child.
A son obsessed with his absenceâand the young magpie that fell into his path and refused to fly away.
This is a story about the crow family and human family; about repetition across generations and birds that run in the blood; about a terror of repeating the sins of the father and a desire to build a nest of oneâs own.