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Featherhood : a memoir of birds and fathers and a magpie / Charlie Gilmour.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, New York : Scribner, 2021Edition: First Scribner hardcover editionDescription: 294 pages ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781501198502
  • 1501198505
  • 9781501198519
  • 1501198513
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Summary: "One spring day, a baby magpie falls out of its nest and into Charlie Gilmour's hands. Magpies, he soon discovers, are as clever and mischievous as monkeys. They are also notorious thieves, and this one quickly steals his heart. By the time the creature develops shiny black feathers that inspire the name Benzene, Charlie and the bird have forged an unbreakable bond. While caring for Benzene, Charlie learns his biological father, an eccentric British poet named Heathcote Williams who vanished when Charlie was six months old, is ill. As he grapples with Heathcote's abandonment, Charlie comes across one of his poems, in which Heathcote describes how an impish young jackdaw fell from its nest and captured his affection. Over time, Benzene helps Charlie unravel his fears about repeating the past--and embrace the role of father himself. A bird falls, a father dies, a child is born. Featherhood is the unforgettable story of a love affair between a man and a bird. It is also a beautiful and affecting memoir about childhood and parenthood, captivity and freedom, grief and love"--from publisher's website.Summary: "A beautiful, moving, and wildly original memoir of grief, healing, and fatherhood through the story of a young man who adopts a baby magpie"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library Biography GILMOUR, C. G488 Available 33111009792561
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Biography GILMOUR, C. G488 Available 33111010487888
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In this "vivid...lovely and inviting" ( The New York Times ) coming-of-age memoir--the "best piece of nature writing since H Is for Hawk " (Neil Gaiman)--a young man saves a baby magpie as his estranged father is dying, only to find that caring for the bird saves him.

This is a story of two men who could talk to birds--but were completely incapable of talking to each other.

A father who fled from his family in the dead of night, and the jackdaw he raised like a child.

A son obsessed with his absence--and the young magpie that fell into his path and refused to fly away.

This is a story about the crow family and human family; about repetition across generations and birds that run in the blood; about a terror of repeating the sins of the father and a desire to build a nest of one's own.

"One spring day, a baby magpie falls out of its nest and into Charlie Gilmour's hands. Magpies, he soon discovers, are as clever and mischievous as monkeys. They are also notorious thieves, and this one quickly steals his heart. By the time the creature develops shiny black feathers that inspire the name Benzene, Charlie and the bird have forged an unbreakable bond. While caring for Benzene, Charlie learns his biological father, an eccentric British poet named Heathcote Williams who vanished when Charlie was six months old, is ill. As he grapples with Heathcote's abandonment, Charlie comes across one of his poems, in which Heathcote describes how an impish young jackdaw fell from its nest and captured his affection. Over time, Benzene helps Charlie unravel his fears about repeating the past--and embrace the role of father himself. A bird falls, a father dies, a child is born. Featherhood is the unforgettable story of a love affair between a man and a bird. It is also a beautiful and affecting memoir about childhood and parenthood, captivity and freedom, grief and love"--from publisher's website.

"A beautiful, moving, and wildly original memoir of grief, healing, and fatherhood through the story of a young man who adopts a baby magpie"-- Provided by publisher.

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