Sydney, 1929: Three people find themselves washed up on the steps of Miss Du Maurier's bohemian boarding house in a once grand terrace in Newtown.
Ari is a young Jewish man, a pogrom orphan, who lives under the stern rule of his rabbi uncle, but dreams his father is Houdini. Upon his hand he bears a forbidden mark - a tattoo - and has a secret ambition to be a magician. Finding an injured parrot one day on the street, Ari is unsure of how to care for it, until he meets young runaway Lily, a glimmering girl after his own abracadabra heart.
Together they form a magical act, but their lives take a strange twist when wild card Billy, a charming and dangerous drifter twisted by the war, can no longer harbour secret desires of his own.
The Bird's Child is a feat of sleight-of-hand. Birds speak, keys appear from nowhere, boxes spill secrets and the dead talk. This is a magical, stunningly original, irresistible novel - both an achingly beautiful love story and a slowly unfurling mystery of belonging.
By:
Sandra Leigh Price Imprint: Harper Collins Country of Publication: Australia Dimensions:
Height: 236mm,
Width: 155mm,
Spine: 28mm
Weight: 510g ISBN:9781460750001 ISBN 10: 1460750004 Pages: 400 Publication Date:23 March 2015 Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format:Paperback Publisher's Status: Active
