All the Little Bird-Hearts

De: Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow

Narrado por: Rose Akroyd

An unforgettable literary debut exploring motherhood, vulnerability, and the way the world closes ranks against those it considers to be different.

I lived for and loved a bird-heart that summer; I only knew it afterwards.

Sunday Forrester lives with her sixteen-year-old daughter, Dolly, in the house she grew up in. She does things more carefully than most people. On quiet days, she must eat only white foods. Her etiquette handbook guides her through confusing social situations, and to escape, she turns to her treasury of Sicilian folklore. The one thing very much out of her control is Dolly - her clever, headstrong daughter, now on the cusp of leaving home.

Into this carefully ordered world step Vita and Rollo, a couple who move in next door, disarm Sunday with their charm, and proceed to deliciously break just about every rule in Sunday's book. Soon they are in and out of each others' homes, and Sunday feels loved and accepted like never before. But beneath Vita and Rollo's polish lies something else, something darker. For Sunday has precisely what Vita has always wanted for herself: a daughter of her own.

©2023 Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow (P)2023 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

Reseñas de la Crítica

"What a glorious, unforgettable character Vita is. And I loved Sunday's voice too, so unique, right from the off. It showed me things about autism that will stay with me. A genuinely valuable book, but more importantly I enjoyed being inside its world." (Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the Barley)

"Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow's is a distinct and poetic new voice. This novel about the complex desires behind our closest relationships is undercut with the darkness of Sicilian folklore: the fisherman who promises away his child; the lover who is a wolf; a caged magpie; burning fields." (Clare Pollard, poet and author of Delphi)

"Funny, lyrical, deft and devastating. Full of longing and love." (Amy Sackville, author of Painter to the King)

Beautifully written prose

The subtlety of the writing in this book is disarming. Yet the straightforward way of showing the perception of a person who is ‘different’ or maybe on the autistic spectrum is authentic and the storyline is moving and heartbreaking as well.