Adrian Mandrick, a successful anesthesiologist with a wife
and two young children, has two passions in life besides his family, birding
and drugs. He’s just a bird or two
behind the holder of the longest “life list” of birds seen when he learns that
the record-holder has suddenly died. Now
in second place potentially, and hoping to rise to first, he seizes every
opportunity to race off to try to spot a bird not on his list to surpass the
total of the deceased birder. His life
has not always been easy – his mother took her two children and ran away from
her violent husband when he was in his teens.
She has her own problems, primarily alcohol, and he has been estranged
from her for years. When she calls and
leaves a desperate sounding message, he avoids returning her call – ultimately,
it will be too late. Having weaned
himself off an addiction to various pharmacological drugs after almost ten
years as a undetected user, he has been clean for a couple of years. The stress of his mother’s call, his birding
preoccupation, and his wife’s unhappiness with his emotional distance and birding
obsession, causes him to relapse. Then a
neophyte birder on a website claims to have seen an ivory-billed woodpecker, long
thought to be extinct, although there have been a few unsubstantiated sightings
deep in southern swamps over the years.
His chase after this elusive bird will bring him face-to-face with his
past. Very promising debut novel. You will root for both Adrian and the amazing
bird. 271 pp.
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