At once an ode to birds, an elegy to space, and a journey into the most haunted and uncanny corners of the human mind, The Avian Hourglass
showcases Lindsey Drager's signature brilliance in a stunning,
surrealist novel for fans of Jesse Ball, Helen Oyeyemi, Yoko Ogawa, and
Shirley Jackson
The birds have disappeared. The stars are
no longer visible. The Crisis is growing worse. In a town as isolated as
a snowglobe, a woman who dreams of becoming a radio astronomer
struggles to raise the triplets she gave birth to as a gestational
surrogate, whose parents were killed in a car accident. Surrounded by
characters who wear wings, memorize etymologies, and build gigantic bird
nests, and bound to this town in which young adults must decide between
two binary worldviews?either YES or NO?the woman is haunted by the old
fable of the Girl in Glass Vessel, a cautionary tale about prying back
the façade of one's world.
When events begin to unfold that
suggest a local legend about the town being the whole of the universe
might be true, the woman finds her understanding of her own life?and her
reality?slipping through her fingers. A reflection on mental health,
the climate emergency, political polarization, and the growing reliance
on technology, The Avian Hourglass asks readers to reframe how
they conceive of a series of concentric understandings of home: the
globe, one's country, one's town, one's family, and one's own body.
