We Should All Be Birds: A Memoir

By: and

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Synopsis
A charming and moving debut memoir about how a man with a mystery illness saves a pigeon, and how the pigeon saves the man. "I loved every page of this book: funny, sad, romantic, and full of pigeons."—Sy Montgomery On a spring evening in Montana, Brian Buckbee encounters an injured baby pigeon. Heartbroken after the loss of the love of his life and increasingly isolated by a mysterious illness that overtook him while trekking through Asia, Brian is unaware that this bird—who he names Two-Step—will change his life. Brian takes in Two-Step, and more injured birds, eventually transforming his home into a madcap bird rehabilitation and rescue center. As Brian and Two-Step grow closer, an unexpected kinship forms. But their paths won’t converge forever: as Two-Step heals and finds love, Brian’s condition worsens, and with his friend’s release back into the world looming closer, Brian must decide where this story leaves him. We Should All Be Birds follows Brian, unable to read or write due to a never-ending headache, as he dictates the end of his old life—as an adventurer, an iconoclastic university instructor, and endurance athlete—through his relationship with a pigeon that comes to define his present. Limited to dictation, Brian teams up with Carol Ann Fitzgerald, an editor who channels the details of his personal history to the pages. Raw and perceptive, delirious and devastating, We Should All Be Birds is an unflinching exploration of chronic illness, grief, connection, and the spectacular beauty of the natural world—and the humble pigeon. The surprising, heartwarming relationship between man and bird provides insight into what it means to love, to suffer, and to "never forget, even for a second, how big it all is."
Copyright:
2025

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
256 Pages
ISBN-13:
9781963108361
Related ISBNs:
9781963108293
Publisher:
Tin House Books, LLC
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Brian Buckbee and Carol Ann Fitzgerald
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
Nonfiction, Animals, Biographies and Memoirs, Health, Mind and Body, Medicine
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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