All the Birds, Singing
A Novel
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3.9 • 36 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
From one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists, a stunningly insightful, emotionally powerful new novel about an outsider haunted by an inescapable past: a story of loneliness and survival, guilt and loss, and the power of forgiveness.
Jake Whyte is living on her own in an old farmhouse on a craggy British island, a place of ceaseless rain and battering wind. Her disobedient collie, Dog, and a flock of sheep are her sole companions, which is how she wants it to be. But every few nights something—or someone—picks off one of the sheep and sounds a new deep pulse of terror. There are foxes in the woods, a strange boy and a strange man, and rumors of an obscure, formidable beast. And there is also Jake’s past, hidden thousands of miles away and years ago, held in the silences about her family and the scars that stripe her back—a past that threatens to break into the present. With exceptional artistry and empathy, All the Birds, Singing reveals an isolated life in all its struggles and stubborn hopes, unexpected beauty, and hard-won redemption.
This eBook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the searing second novel from Wyld (After the Fire, a Still Small Voice), the past takes real and imagined forms, all terrifying, in its protagonist's life. Jake Whyte, a young Englishwoman, is a sheep farmer on a desolate scrap of island very like the Isle of Wight, where the author, who was named one of the best young British novelists of 2013 by Granta, spent much of her childhood. In the present, something, or someone, is gruesomely killing Jake's sheep. Her traumatic past includes a stint as a prostitute and a relationship with the creepy Otto, who ostensibly "rescues" Jake from the streets, only to turn her into a sex slave of sorts. Jake's current fears include a man in a suit who shows up on her property, and a shadowy beast that she heard going berserk in her cottage one night. Wyld's writing is as muscular as Jake, who, when spooked, drops to the floor to do push-ups. But Jake is troubled as well as strong, running from the many tragedies in her past, including one experience that left a nasty scar on her back. It is a testament to Wyld's vivid storytelling that readers will feel determined to drag themselves through her tale's more unsavory moments to its final revelation.
Customer Reviews
So Close
I gave this work four stars in recognition of the very high quality of its taut writing, which very effectively builds piece by piece in telling the the protagonist’s exceptional story. It really drew me in and was difficult to put down. It was easily a five star book until the very end, where it basically leaves you hanging in mid air with resolution of neither the story line nor the story’s compelling angst. So disappointing!
All the Birds Singing
I was disappointed in this book. With the chronology of the story jumbled, it was hard to follow the track of Jake's life. What was real and what was a phantom? As the bits and pieces come together, I was expecting some sort of redemption. That didn't happen, hence my disappointment. It is a sad, dark tale that ultimately doesn't find a resolution. It just...stops.