'My name is Avocet Abigail Jackson. But because Mama couldn't find anyone who thought Avocet was fine name for a child, she called me Bird. Which is okay by me. She named both her girl children after birds, her logic being that if we were named for something with wings then maybe we'd be able to fly above the shit in our lives...'
So says Bird Jackson, the mesmerising narrator of this vivid and brilliantly written novel. In stark and honest language, she tells of her father's tragic life, a sweet-talking wannabe country music star, tracks her older sister's perilous journey into womanhood and witnesses her mother's retreat into alcoholism in the wake of a violent past. But most profound is Bird's own story - her struggle to sift through the ashes of her parents' lives and her will to make sense of a world where fear is more plentiful than hope, retribution more valued than love.
