“Effortlessly combines the fairytale with the profound” Piers Torday
“Beautiful, full of a sense of haunting mystery” Katherine Woodfine
"Beguiling, unsettling and magical in the strangest, least twee sense of the word," Stefan Mohamed
Somewhere in time and far away at the edge of most things, eleven year-old Wren and her Grandmother Raven live alone in the Winged House, a there-and-not-there mansion that lies between the worlds, where time slips quickly between your fingers, and dust gathers faster than can be cleaned away.
Wren and Grandmother Raven are Bird Fliers: beings that are not quite human and made of stranger, lighter stuff. Bird Fliers can slip between walls and, when they have received the training, take on any of six bird forms to Fly the souls of humans that have died to the Shadow Mountains, where they will find peace.
When Grandmother Raven does not return after Flying one night, Wren panics and - without knowing how to Fly or how to return - she follows her through the bird door. Without training though, she has no way to get home and becomes lost in the Human World, becoming more and more a ghost, until finally it is up to a young girl to help her back to where she belongs.
Meanwhile, in 1926, Marta’s young life is full of fairy tales and playing in the Bergholz Forest until her beloved little brother dies in an accident. Ernst’s death changes everything: Marta’s parents no longer read together and the family starts to fracture. At Ernst’s funeral Marta witnesses something that will change her life forever: a Bird Flier Flying her brother’s soul away. Rather than scaring young Marta, this event sows the seed of her future: she vows that when she is older she too will help souls pass into the next life.
To find her home, Wren will almost lose herself, and Marta will find her true calling.
To find her family, Grandmother Raven will break down the doors she has built around her granddaughter.
To find truth, Grandmother Raven and Wren will journey to the edge of time, where a breath is all there is between finding your story and forgetting everything.
“Written in lyrical prose, The Bird Atlas follows the intertwined stories of three children: Marta, Rosie and Bird-Flier Wren. I fell in love with the complex and beautiful mythology that McKerrow has created to tell the tale of the Fliers, destined to fly human souls home to the Shadow Mountains. The Bird Atlas is partly a fairy tale and partly a call to defend nature from exploitation, but it is above all a stunning meditation on loss, grief and family, the kind of book that will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading it.“ - Katharine Corr, author of A Throne of Swans and The Witch’s Kiss
Anna McKerrow is the author of the YA Greenworld trilogy (Quercus), adult novels including the Romantic Novelist Award 2019-shortlisted Daughter of Light and Shadows and its sequel Queen of Sea and Stars, and a number of women's fiction titles written as Kennedy Kerr.
Genre: Fantasy
“Beautiful, full of a sense of haunting mystery” Katherine Woodfine
"Beguiling, unsettling and magical in the strangest, least twee sense of the word," Stefan Mohamed
Somewhere in time and far away at the edge of most things, eleven year-old Wren and her Grandmother Raven live alone in the Winged House, a there-and-not-there mansion that lies between the worlds, where time slips quickly between your fingers, and dust gathers faster than can be cleaned away.
Wren and Grandmother Raven are Bird Fliers: beings that are not quite human and made of stranger, lighter stuff. Bird Fliers can slip between walls and, when they have received the training, take on any of six bird forms to Fly the souls of humans that have died to the Shadow Mountains, where they will find peace.
When Grandmother Raven does not return after Flying one night, Wren panics and - without knowing how to Fly or how to return - she follows her through the bird door. Without training though, she has no way to get home and becomes lost in the Human World, becoming more and more a ghost, until finally it is up to a young girl to help her back to where she belongs.
Meanwhile, in 1926, Marta’s young life is full of fairy tales and playing in the Bergholz Forest until her beloved little brother dies in an accident. Ernst’s death changes everything: Marta’s parents no longer read together and the family starts to fracture. At Ernst’s funeral Marta witnesses something that will change her life forever: a Bird Flier Flying her brother’s soul away. Rather than scaring young Marta, this event sows the seed of her future: she vows that when she is older she too will help souls pass into the next life.
To find her home, Wren will almost lose herself, and Marta will find her true calling.
To find her family, Grandmother Raven will break down the doors she has built around her granddaughter.
To find truth, Grandmother Raven and Wren will journey to the edge of time, where a breath is all there is between finding your story and forgetting everything.
“Written in lyrical prose, The Bird Atlas follows the intertwined stories of three children: Marta, Rosie and Bird-Flier Wren. I fell in love with the complex and beautiful mythology that McKerrow has created to tell the tale of the Fliers, destined to fly human souls home to the Shadow Mountains. The Bird Atlas is partly a fairy tale and partly a call to defend nature from exploitation, but it is above all a stunning meditation on loss, grief and family, the kind of book that will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading it.“ - Katharine Corr, author of A Throne of Swans and The Witch’s Kiss
Anna McKerrow is the author of the YA Greenworld trilogy (Quercus), adult novels including the Romantic Novelist Award 2019-shortlisted Daughter of Light and Shadows and its sequel Queen of Sea and Stars, and a number of women's fiction titles written as Kennedy Kerr.
Genre: Fantasy
Used availability for Anna McKerrow's The Bird Atlas