Synopses & Reviews
On a spring evening in Montana, Brian Buckbee encounters an injured baby
pigeon. Heartbroken after the loss of the love of his life and
increasingly isolated by a mysterious illness that overtook him while
trekking through Asia, Brian is unaware that this bird--who he names
Two-Step--will change his life. Brian takes in Two-Step, and more
injured birds, eventually transforming his home into a madcap bird
rehabilitation and rescue center. As Brian and Two-Step grow closer, an
unexpected kinship forms. But their paths won't converge forever: as
Two-Step heals and finds love, Brian's condition worsens, and with his
friend's release back into the world looming closer, Brian must decide
where this story leaves him.
We Should All Be Birds follows Brian, unable to read or write
due to a never-ending headache, as he dictates the end of his old
life--as an adventurer, an iconoclastic university instructor, and
endurance athlete--through his relationship with a pigeon that comes to
define his present. Limited to dictation, Brian teams up with Carol Ann
Fitzgerald, an editor who channels the details of his personal history
to the pages. Raw and perceptive, delirious and devastating,
We Should All Be Birds is an unflinching exploration of chronic
illness, grief, connection, and the spectacular beauty of the natural
world--and the humble pigeon. The surprising, heartwarming relationship
between man and bird provides insight into what it means to love, to
suffer, and to "never forget, even for a second, how big it all is."
About the Author
Brian Buckbee lives in Missoula, Montana. He is co-founder of The 406 Writers' Workshop. His stories have appeared in
The Sun,
The Georgia Review,
The Mid-American Review,
Shenandoah,
The Southern Review, and elsewhere.
Carol Ann Fitzgerald is a former editor at
The Sun and
The Oxford American. Her fiction and nonfiction have been published in
Ploughshares,
The Oxford American,
The Sun,
The OA Book of Great Music Writing, and elsewhere. She lives in Chapel Hill.