OTHER BIRDS
by Sarah Addison Allen
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St. Martin's Press
8/30/22
Fiction / Magical Realism
Hardcover, 304 pages
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“Languid and peaceful, gentle and comforting, Allen’s newest showcases her talent for tender stories of near magic. Her fans will be lining up for this.”
-Library Journal
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Down a narrow alley in the small coastal town of Mallow Island, South Carolina, lies a stunning cobblestone building consisting of five apartments. It’s called The Dellawisp and it is named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit the building an air of magical secrecy.
When Zoey Hennessey comes to claim her deceased mother’s apartment at The Dellawisp, she meets her quirky, enigmatic neighbors including a girl on the run, a grieving chef whose comfort food does not comfort him, two estranged middle-aged sisters, and three ghosts, each with their own story. Each with their own longings, each whose ending isn’t yet written.
When one of her new neighbors dies under odd circumstances the night Zoey arrives, she is thrust into the mystery of The Dellawisp, which involves missing pages from a legendary writer whose work might be hidden there. She soon discovers that many unfinished stories permeate the place, and the people around her are in as much need of healing from the wrongs of the past as she is. To find their way they have to learn how to trust each other, confront their deepest fears, and let go of what haunts them.
Delightful and atmospheric, Other Birds is filled with magical realism and moments of pure love/ Sarah Addison Allen shows us that between the real and the imaginary, there are stories that take flight in the most extraordinary ways.
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Dear Reader,
There’s a thin, wispy line that exists between the real and the unreal. And that line is where I think the true comfort of fiction lies. Because when something is real enough to almost be true, it’s the almost that keeps us going.
I dedicated this book to my mom, who taught me food is love. It was the first, and best, magic I ever knew. It’s part ghost story, part love story, part fairytale. It’s about what we hold onto, and how to finally let go.
Sarah Addison Allen
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Other Birds Book Club Menu
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Other Birds takes place on a fictional island that was once famous for its production of marshmallow confections. When Zoey first arrives on the island, she sees that the restaurants all have some form of marshmallow on the menu. A fun Mallow Island-themed book club would include a sampling of what these restaurants serve: A sweet snack like marshmallow popcorn, something savory like sweet potato fries with a side of marshmallow dipping sauce —think deconstructed sweet potato casserole and even beverages like chocolate milk served in toasted marshmallow “shot glasses” or a marshmallow martini.
This is a Southern coastal setting so, of course, seafood is part of the culture. When Chef Mac creates the dinner menu for his neighbors, Charlotte and Zoey, he includes cornmeal crab cakes. And the old woman who raised Mac and taught him to cook, Camille, worked for years at a famous seafood shack on the island called Sea Food Paradise.
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Camille’s ghost says, “For those of you who don’t know it, you have to have hushpuppies with your seafood. That’s just the way it is.” Hushpuppies are crispy, deep-fried cornbread, and cornbread is probably the most emotionally charged food in the book. Camille’s specialty was making cornbread, and it’s part of what still haunts Mac. My own mother loved cornbread, sometimes making it from scratch in a cast-iron skillet, sometimes simply making it from a box mix. She used it as a side at dinner, but the next day she would take the cornbread and crumble it in a glass of milk or buttermilk and eat it with a spoon. It’s something Mac turns into an unusual dessert using ice cream at his restaurant.
My mom taught me that food is love, like Camille taught Mac, and Mac teaches his neighbors, and as Charlotte remembers the quirky childhood snack of chocolate milk over hot rice she used to have with her best friend, and when Zoey remembers her mother making potato chip sandwiches. I absolutely believe that any food created with love is good food. Food is, simply, magic.
-Sarah Addison Allen
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