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9781571311429

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Praise for Aviary Even when it hurts--and, if you have anything in the way of feelings, this novel will make you weep--Aviary is a cleansing antidote to the last few years of political and cultural turmoil, a salve to combat our still-raging health crisis, a tonic for our social media spinout. . . . This quietly important book offers hope as it tackles grief and isolation and our essential humanity. --New York Times Book Review The residents at Pheasant Run are acutely aware of the world's indifference to them. They no longer work. Their great love affairs are behind them. Why should they fight back? But by the end of this underdog novel, Ms. McNamer has developed poignant reasons that they do. --Wall Street Journal Quietly revelatory . . . Populated by a motley crew of residents, Pheasant Run hides mysteries behind its many doors, and McNamer reveals them with insight, grace, and humor, offering up a profoundly beautiful exploration of the limits--and lack thereof--of the human experience. --Refinery29, Best New Books of 2021 A literary thriller written with McNamer's trademark emotional acuity, Aviary is as questioning as its characters, heart-haunted, buoyant, and rich with the wonders that make life worth living. --Chicago Review of Books With beautifully realized characters, a wonderfully constructed plot, and some understated but powerful prose, this novel is a delight from start to finish. . . . McNamer weaves into this narrative the ripple effects of the 2008 financial crisis and the mismanagement of retirement communities, a setting that is particularly relevant now considering the way COVID-19 has ravaged these communities. --Booklist McNamer brings great care to describing her main characters as they gain a renewed purpose for living. This is worth a spin. --Publishers Weekly [T]his is no geriatric whodunit, and author McNamer is not so concerned with exposing the perp . . . She's more interested in the indignities of old age, memory and loss, and what one character calls 'the secret of ongoingness.' --Kirkus A symphony of character, mystery, memory and hope, by one of America's finest writers. Aviary is a book to hold dear. --Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less The true puzzle at the heart of the story is not one that can be solved. It is nothing less than the enigma of humanity. . . . McNamer's prose reliably rises to magnificence. --Washington Independent Review of Books McNamer brings great care to describing her main characters as they gain a renewed purpose for living. This is worth a spin. --Publishers Weekly [T]his is no geriatric whodunit, and author McNamer is not so concerned with exposing the perp. . . . She's more interested in the indignities of old age, memory and loss, and what one character calls 'the secret of ongoingness.' --Kirkus Where would we be without the always magnificent Deirdre McNamer? With Aviary, she has given us her best work yet, a novel brimming, room after room, with all our mercies and our hauntings. This is a house you want to explore forever, where the smallest acts can be as potent as revelations, and where we, on every beautiful, hilarious, and heart-heavy page, learn a little bit more about ourselves. I didn't want to leave it--a book I will return to, often, for faith, for light. --Paul Yoon, author of Run Me to Earth A riveting new novel by one of the great writers of our time, Aviary is a literary thriller that defies every expectation. Funny, tender, heartbreaking--a story of love and grief and mystery, of new beginnings found near the end of life. These pages stirred me deeply. This is a novel I've waited a long time for, and now that it's here, I plan to read it again and again. --Emily Ruskovich, author of Idaho Praise for Deirdre McNamer McNamer writes with a slow-burning brilliance. --Barbara Kingsolver A wonderfully smart and surprising sentence-writer . . . This is 'the novel as story-telling.' And it is of a very high order. --Richard Ford A master weaver of prose. --Jim Harrison A careful writer, a master of the small, telling observation. --New York Times A strong, true voice . . . McNamer writes poetically, with restraint and insight. --Los Angeles Times McNamer has no formula, only a deep sense of human character . . . and a long sense of time. --San Francisco Chronicle [McNamer's] understanding of human nature and her ability to convey it to readers makes her one of the more remarkable writers of our times. --Milwaukee Journal One of the west's finest contemporary novelists . . . McNamer's genius for capturing the unromantic realism of Montana really shines. --High Country News

Author Information

Deirdre McNamer is the author of Aviary, as well as four previous novels: Rima in the Weeds, One Sweet Quarrel, My Russian, and Red Rover, which was a winner of the Montana Book Award and was named a best book of the year by Artforum, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. Her essays, short fiction, and reviews have appeared in the New Yorker, Ploughshares, the New York Times, and Outside, among other venues. McNamer chaired the fiction panel of the National Book Awards in 2011 and was a judge for the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award. She has taught writing at Cornell University, Williams College, the University of Ohio, the University of Oregon, the University of Alabama, the University of Montana, and the Bennington Writing Seminars, where she currently holds a faculty position in the low-residency MFA program. She lives in Missoula, Montana.

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