Birds and the Conjuring of Grief
There is no better depiction of the way grief perches in the heart than recent books by Helen MacDonald and Max Porter.
Grief is the Thing with Feathers
Frontload the Strangeness: On Mark Slouka’s “Dog”
It seems that every book I’ve read recently has a talking animal in it. A new favorite is Max Porter’s novel, which begins with a protagonist opening the door to find a life-sized crow on his doorstep. The bird picks the man up, cradles him in his wings.