The Boy with a Bird in His Chest: A Novel

Owen is born with a bird, a wren, who lives inside of his chest and speaks to him. His mother keeps him safe from the Army of Acronyms—doctors, cops, scientists, the government, and anyone who might want to turn Owen and Gail, the bird, into an experiment, but to do so she must hide him away for years. But at fourteen, he insists on the freedom to attend school. All the agonies of adolescence are amplified for a boy like Owen: awkward, unskilled, shy, attracted to boys, and harboring a secret that must never be told. No one, never, is the mantra his mother teaches him, and when Owen finally trusts someone else enough to show them, Gail, he repeats the mantra endlessly. This is a beautifully painful story that could be read as a parable or fantasy, as magical realism, or as a coming-of-age novel. Unlike anything else I’ve read, it will appeal to booklovers who seek out tales of adolescence set in the Pacific Northwest, who appreciate characters who slowly learn to love themselves and embrace a life that may have seemed too challenging to exist