Birds of a Lesser Paradise - by Megan Mayhew Bergman (Paperback)

About the Book

Exploring the way our choices and relationships are shaped by the menace and beauty of the natural world, Megan Mayhew Bergman's powerful and heartwarming collection captures the surprising moments when the pull of our biology becomes evident, when love or fear collide with good sense, or when our attachment to an animal or wild place can't be denied.

Book Synopsis

An "astonishing debut collection, by a writer reminiscent of such greats as Alice Munro, Elizabeth Strout, and even Chekhov" (Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants), focusing on women navigating relationships with humans, animals, and the natural world. Exploring the way our choices and relationships are shaped by the menace and beauty of the natural world, Megan Mayhew Bergman's powerful and heartwarming collection captures the surprising moments when the pull of our biology becomes evident, when love or fear collides with good sense, or when our attachment to an animal or wild place can't be denied. In "Housewifely Arts," a single mother and her son drive hours to track down an African gray parrot that can mimic her deceased mother's voice. A population-control activist faces the conflict between her loyalty to the environment and her maternal desire in "Yesterday's Whales." And in the title story, a lonely naturalist allows an attractive stranger to lead her and her aging father on a hunt for an elusive woodpecker. As intelligent as they are moving, the stories in Birds of a Lesser Paradise are alive with emotion, wit, and insight into the impressive power that nature has over all of us. This extraordinary collection introduces a young writer of remarkable talent.

Review Quotes

""Birds of a Lesser Paradise" is an astonishing debut collection, by a writer reminiscent of such greats as Alice Munro, Elizabeth Strout and even Chekhov. Expertly delivered, Bergman's stories bloom from the minutiae of life. They confirm the inescapable power that nature--and our own biology--has over us."

- Sara Gruen, author of"Water for Elephants"

"A big-hearted collection of stories--each one a precise and compassionate study of human life, the changes and obstacles--all carefully housed under the miracles and marvels of nature. Megan Mayhew Bergman is a brilliantly gifted writer who recognizes and highlights life's fragilities in a way that will leave your heart aching while also finding those bits of hilarity and absurdity that bring uniqueness to each and every creature."

- Jill McCorkle, author of"Going Away Shoes"

"A top-notch debut... that deserves big praise. The beginning, one suspects, of a fine career." --"Kirkus"

"Bergman's excellent stories are hard-earned and well-honed. Her characters speak as if their very lives depend upon getting it right, getting it down, facing the toughest stuff that tumbles down with equal toughness and enduring resilience. A very fine and impressive debut."

-Brad Watson, author of "Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives"

"I predict that astronomers will soon be renaming the star Sirius to Megan Mayhew Bergman. "Birds of a Lesser Paradise" offers us a spectacular new voice in the world of American short fiction. The characters in these stories--each one--perform as beacons on who we are and how we should act, all without pretense or exhortation. This is a first-rate collection."

--George Singleton, author of"The Half-Mammals of Dixie"

"Megan Mayhew Bergman apparently possesses, all in one sensibility, Ralph Waldo Emerson's love of a back-to-the-land self-sufficiency, Amy Hempel's infinite tenderness towards animals, and Tillie Olsen's fierce sense of the emotional intensities of motherhood. "Birds of a Lesser Paradise" features characters who, even understanding it as well as they do, want to mother the world, and their stories are rendered with dazzling compassion, intelligence, and grace."

- Jim Shepard, author of"You Think That's Bad"

"Readers will be shocked, amazed, and always entertained by the work of this accomplished writer of short fiction." --"Booklist"

About the Author

Megan Mayhew Bergman is the author of Almost Famous Women and Birds of a Lesser Paradise. Her short fiction has appeared in two volumes of The Best American Short Stories and on NPR's Selected Shorts. She has written columns on climate change and the natural world for The Guardian and The Paris Review. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Tin House, Ploughshares, Oxford American, Orion, and elsewhere. She teaches literature and environmental writing at Middlebury College, where she also serves as director of the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference. She lives on a small farm in Vermont.