Synopses & Reviews
Jim Kennoway was once an esteemed member of the ornithology department at the Museum of Natural History in New York, collecting and skinning birds as specimens. Slowing down from a hard-lived life and a recent leg amputation, Jim retreats to an island in Maine: to drink, smoke, and to be left alone. As a young man he worked for Naval Intelligence during World War II in the Solomon Islands. While spying on Japanese shipping from behind enemy lines, Jim befriended Tosca, a young islander who worked with him as a scout. Now, thirty years later, Tosca has sent his daughter Cadillac to stay with Jim in the weeks before she begins premedical studies at Yale. She arrives to Jims consternation, yet she will capture his heart and the hearts of everyone she meets, irrevocably changing their lives.
Written in lush, lyrical proserich in island detail, redolent of Maine in summer and of the PacificThe Bird Skinner is wise and wrenching, an unforgettable masterwork from an extraordinarily skillful novelist.
Review
An Indie Next Pick for January 2014"Atmospheric and engrossing." People
"Bracing . . . Greenways thrilling evocation of young love . . . is as fresh as it is heartbreaking. With an attention to detail thats both poetic and precise . . . The Bird Skinner knows we are animals, all of us. The natural world is everywhereand despite undeniable beauty, it's rarely pretty." Joanna Hershon, New York Times Book Review
"Sensitively written and gently understanding of human frailty. . . . Greenways rapturous prose and warm empathy assert that there is beauty to be found in even the unhappiest lives." Washington Post
"A fascinating novel . . . the reader will have a hard time putting this book down." Christian Science Monitor
"Its not every day you come across a novel that connects a Maine island with one of the Solomon Islands . . . in a love story that weaves together World War II, ornithology, Robert Louis Stevenson, regret, and ultimately, love." National Geographic Traveler
"In lush, expressive prose . . . The Bird Skinner is capacious . . . this is a novel that soars." Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Evocative . . . image-rich . . . The distinctive environments of disparate islands, interwoven with alternately romantic and horrific flashbacks, create a beautiful, ultimately painful story as haunting as its settings. Gifted at evoking places in the past, Greenway is at her most poignant in moments when outsiders and natives, from hot climates and cold, come face to face, attempting to connect across geographic, cultural, emotional, and psychological divides." Publishers Weekly
"Greenways limpid, poetic prose; her richly nuanced portrait of a nicely varied cast of characters on both Fox and Manhattan islands; and her evocative depiction of natural landscapes . . . [is] sensitive and finely written." Kirkus Reviews
"A fascinating novel with the peculiar combination of ornithology and World War II in the South Pacific, birds and death, and the survivors who not so much survive as endure. This is a rich stew pervaded by fine story telling." Jim Harrison, author of The River Swimmer
"Spirited and moving . . . Greenway has a marvelous sense of place and history. Her evocation of the war in the Solomons, and her description of the island in Maine, are pitch-perfect." Frances FitzGerald, author of Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam
"Greenway creates intensely believable characters who come from other places and other times. The Solomon Islands become characters as rich and three-dimensional as any other. She captures so well the unsleeping tragedies of the past, and how these bear in upon the present." Helen Dunmore, author of The Siege
"A romance, a compelling story, an illumination of what birdwatching is all about, The Bird Skinner has all the earmarks of a natural history classic." Marie Winn, author of Central Park in the Dark: More Mysteries of Urban Wildlife
"What a setup: A young girl named Cadillac from an island in the South Pacific, en route to Yale Medical School, arrives at the front door of a crotchety old man on a Maine island in Penobscot Bay. The stage is set for this beautifully-written tale of generational tension and kindness, memories and mysteries, war and love, bombs and birds. A wonderful read." Jim Sterba, author of Frankies Place: A Love Story
Synopsis
Alice Greenway launched into the literary world with
White Ghost Girlsa haunting and sensuous debut about two sisters tumbling into their teenage years in Hong Kong in the late 1960swhich won the
Los Angeles Times First Novel award and was heralded by critics from the
New York Times Book Review to
Vogue to Isabel Allende, who wrote that it was "written with the craft and grace of a master."
In her exquisitely rendered new novel, Greenway tells the story of Jim Carroway, a World War II Vietnam Vet once called Jungle Jim, who has moved to a tiny island in Maine to seclude himself from his former life. It is 1974 and all Jim wants is to be alone, to drink, nurse his amputated leg and write an article on where he believes Robert Louis Stevensons real Treasure Island is. Once Jim was a noted ornithologist collecting and skinning birds as specimens he sent back to the Museum of Natural History in New York where he worked. Since his amputation, his lifelong work has become impossible. Now hiding out on Fox Island, away from his adult son and grandchildren in Connecticut and his colleagues in New York, he is depressed and in pain.
Jims slowly deteriorating mind unravels memories that take him back to the war in Guadalcanal, where he was with Naval Intelligence, spying on the Japanese for Admiral Halsey on a remote Solomon Island. There he became friends with a young native, Tosca, who taught him about the islands. Now in Maine, Jim finds out that Tosca, whom he hasnt heard from in thirty years, is sending his daughter Cadillac to stay with him for a month before she starts Yale on a scholarship. Cadillac arrives to Jims consternation, but she is utterly captivating, totally original. She will capture his heart and the heart of everyone she meets.
Rich in island detail, redolent of Maine in the summer and winter, and of the Solomon islands, comprised of lush and poetic prose, The Bird Skinner is a wise, wrenching, exhilarating and unforgettable masterpiece from an extraordinarily skillful novelist.
About the Author
Alice Greenway lived the itinerant life of a foreign correspondent's child, growing up in Hong Kong, Thailand, Israel and the United States. As an adult, she has divided her time between the United States and Britain. Her first novel White Ghost Girls, set in Hong Kong in the 1960s, won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award For First Fiction and was on the Orange Prize longlist. She currently lives in Scotland.