The Kindness of Birds

Review\n"These stories are beyond beautiful and deeply moving..." —Jennifer Ackerman, Bestselling author of The Genius of Birds\n"Merlinda Bobis is an utterly distinctive voice in Australian letters. In our ironic and cynical times, here are stories of heartfelt feeling — fulsome, tender and unabashed — in which grief and hope are equally things with feathers." —Gail Jones, Award winning novelist\nAmidst COVID-19, planetary and personal upheavals, fourteen stories pay homage to kindness. From Australia to the Philippines and other corners of the world, across cultures and species, we meet, connect, console. Always there are birds that inspire us to remember kindness and remember kindly. We are consoled, because there is unkindness too, that snag in the breath, that shadow of a wing. An oriole sings to a dying father. A bleeding heart dove saves the day. A quarrel over cockatoos attends the laying of the dead. A crow wakes a woman’s resolve. Kindness cannot self-isolate. It moves both ways and all ways, like breath.