Birds on a Wire
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A deeply moving contemporary story about family and foster care from a two-time Christy Award-winning author
When her newborn son, Providence, is taken by CPS, eighteen-year-old Bri Marshall is determined to do whatever's necessary to get him back—with or without Providence's father. But hurdles like no job, car, or family support complicate the process. Bri never expected to sink this low. What will it take to hold her baby in her arms again?
Thirty-nine-year-old Laura Gambler, facing the big 4-0, is managing new challenges with her own children when she's asked to take in baby Providence. She could never have imagined the chain of events that agreeing to foster would set in motion—or the carefully buried pain from her past it would drag back to the surface.
Both women wrestle with doubts about the future and their ability to parent Providence, even as their love for him grows stronger every day. As their lives become irrevocably intertwined, the two very different women face the same impossible question: Who is the best mother for Providence?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Two women are bound by their love for one infant—only weeks old and already facing impossible odds—in this nuanced outing from Powner (The Sowing Season). Bri Marshall, 18, is reeling after Child Protective Services removes her newborn son, Providence, from her care following her positive test for methamphetamine. Without a job or a family to support her, Bri confronts a system that feels insurmountable even as she grapples with her culpability in losing custody. Meanwhile, 39-year-old Laura Gambler, already a mother to a strong-willed first grader, is feeling uneasy about her crumbling marriage and parenting skills when she's asked to foster Providence. As Providence's needs compound, what began an act of compassion becomes a reckoning with Laura's sense of inadequacy as a mother, and she begins to question whether loving the child is an act of generosity or something darker. When Bri and Laura meet by chance, a fragile connection forms, but as Bri's challenges to regaining custody mount and Laura grows increasingly attached to Providence, each woman is conflicted about God's plan for the future—and what is best for the baby. Powner alternates perspectives between her protagonists, eliciting readers' empathy for both women, and vividly contrasting Bri's desperation and hope with Laura's guilt, love, and longing. This emotionally resonant tale resists easy answers.
