All the Little Bird-Hearts
A Novel
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
“A poetic debut which masterfully intertwines themes of familial love, friendship, class, prejudice and trauma with psychological acuity and wit.” ─ The 2023 Booker Prize Judges
I lived for and loved a bird-heart that summer; I only knew it afterwards.
Sunday Forrester does things more carefully than most people. On certain days, she must eat only white food; she drinks only carbonated beverages; she avoids clocks. It's 1988, before autism was widely diagnosed. Sunday has an old etiquette handbook that guides her through confusing social situations, and to escape, she turns to her treasury of Sicilian folklore. The one thing very much out of her control is Dolly, her clever, headstrong teenage daughter, now on the cusp of leaving their home in the Lake District of England.
When the glamourous Vita and Rollo move in next door, the couple disarm Sunday with their charm, and proceed to deliciously break just about every rule in Sunday's book. Soon they are spending loads of time together, and Sunday feels acknowledged like never before. But underneath Vita and Rollo's allure lies something else, something darker. For Sunday has precisely what Vita has always wanted for herself: a daughter of her own.
A page-turning psychological drama, All the Little Bird-Hearts is an extraordinary, often witty glimpse into the mind of an autistic woman─and a remarkable debut by an author who is herself autistic. It is also an astute portrait of a woman coming to terms with the meaning of love, of motherhood, and of authenticity, and a poignant reminder about why accepting ourselves can be so freeing.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British writer Lloyd-Barlow debuts with a gorgeous story of an autistic mother knocked off course by a whirlwind new friendship and her daughter's coming-of-age. In 1988, divorcee Sunday leads a steady and regimented life in the English countryside with her 16-year-old daughter Dolly. Sunday's routines include only eating foods that are colored white, working at her former in-laws' greenhouse, and a fixation on Sicilian traditions. Her attempts to better understand social behavior are upended when wealthy, unpredictable Vita moves in next door. Soon, Vita sweeps Sunday and Dolly into weekly dinners with her husband, Rollo, and Sunday comes to believe that Vita is the first person to fully accept her since her older sister, Dolores, died when Sunday was a teen. What she doesn't realize is that Vita and Dolly have been covering up their plans for Dolly to join Rollo's home renovation business. The revelation leads Sunday to second-guess Vita's charms and intentions, though she feels powerless to intervene. Lloyd-Barlow's portrayal of Sunday's contentment and confusions makes for deeply humanizing autistic representation, and her prose is arrestingly sharp. This auspicious debuts brims with quiet tragedies and lush emotional landscapes.