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Original Essays | September 23, 2009

Jonathan Lethem: IMG Stops: On Those Things My New Novel Forgot to Be About, Maybe



For me, there's a weird, unfathomable gulf — I almost wrote gulp — between the completion of a novel and its publication. Some days this duration feels interminable, as though the book has... Continue »
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1 Burnside Literature- A to Z

The Book of Dead Birds

by Gayle Brandeis

The Book of Dead Birds Cover

ISBN13: 9780060528034
ISBN10: 0060528036
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: Standard
All Product Details

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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Winner of Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize, an award in support of a literature of social responsibility, The Book of Dead Birds is an intimate portrait of a young woman at a defining moment in her life, who stands at the intersection of two cultures and races.

Ava Sing Lo has been accidentally killing her mother's birds since she was a little girl. Now, having just finished her graduate work, Ava leaves her native San Diego for the Salton Sea, where she volunteers to help environmental activists save thousands of birds poisoned by agricultural run-off.

Helen, Ava's mother, has been haunted by her past for decades. As a young girl in Korea, Helen was drawn into prostitution on a segregated American army base. Several brutal years passed before a young white American soldier married her and brought her to California. When she gave birth to a black baby, her new husband quickly abandoned her, and she was left to fend for herself and her daughter in a foreign country.

With great beauty and lyricism, The Book of Dead Birds captures a young woman's struggle to come to terms with her mother's terrible past while she searches for her own place in the world. This moving mother-daughter story of migration, survival, and reconciliation resonates across cultures and through generations.

Review:

"A moving and perceptive first novel." O Magazine

Review:

"It has an edgy beauty that enhances perfectly the seriousness of its contents." Toni Morrison

Review:

"Lyrical, imaginative, beautifully crafted, and deeply intelligent. Before anything else, its characters take you by the heart." Barbara Kingsolver

Review:

"The Book of Dead Birds is a story of healing — a skillful, textured weaving of dark and light." Donna M. Gershten, author of Kissing the Virgin's Mouth

Review:

"An emotional story forged in crystalline prose....Brandeis channels Ava with the precision of a poet, creating an elegant tale...in which beauty is rendered from brutal sources." Bust Magazine

Review:

"A wrenching tale." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"Intricate and elegant...a novel that illustrates a compelling search for meaning that is ultimately familiar." Denver Post

Synopsis:

With great beauty and lyricism, Brandeis eloquently captures a young woman's struggle to come to terms with her mother's terrible past while she searches for her own place in the world. This moving story of migration, survival, and reconciliation resonates across cultures and through generations.

About the Author

Gayle Brandeis is the author of  The Book of Dead Birds the winner of Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize, an award in support of a literature of social change. Reviewers have highly praised this, her first novel, and Toni Morrison said: "It has an edgy beauty that enhances perfectly the seriousness of its contents."  She is also the author. Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write. 

Product Details

ISBN:
9780060528034
Subtitle:
A Novel
Author:
Brandeis, Gayle
Publisher:
HarperCollins LANGUAGE: eng
Location:
New York
Subject:
General
Subject:
Birds
Subject:
Mothers and daughters
Subject:
Racially mixed people
Subject:
Domestic fiction
Subject:
Korean American women.
Subject:
San Diego
Subject:
Women conservationists
Subject:
Salton Sea
Subject:
Bildungsromans
Subject:
General Fiction
Edition Number:
1st ed.
Series Volume:
678-M
Publication Date:
20030429
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
256
Dimensions:
9.41x6.38x.92 in. 1.13 lbs.

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