Jim Kennoway was once an esteemed member of the ornithology department at the Museum of Natural History in New York, collecting and skinning birds as specimens. Slowing down from a hard-lived life and a recent leg amputation, Jim retreats to an island in Maine: to drink, smoke, and to be left alone. As a young man he worked for Naval Intelligence during World War II in the Solomon Islands. While spying on Japanese shipping from behind enemy lines, Jim befriended Tosca, a young islander who worked with him as a scout. Now, thirty years later, Tosca has sent his daughter Cadillac to stay with Jim in the weeks before she begins premedical studies at Yale. She arrives to Jim’s consternation, yet she will capture his heart and the hearts of everyone she meets, irrevocably changing their lives. Written in lush, lyrical prose—rich in island detail, redolent of Maine in summer and of the Pacific—The Bird Skinner is wise and wrenching, an unforgettable masterwork from an extraordinarily skillful novelist.

On a weather-beaten island in Maine, a birder and WWII vet confronts his past in this “atmospheric and engrossing” novel (People). After a recent leg amputation, ornithologist and World War II veteran Jim Kennoway retreats to an island in Penobscot Bay, off the coast of Maine. All he wants is to drink, smoke, and be left alone. From his perch, he listens for birdcalls and thinks back on his youth, his romance with his now deceased wife, his work for the American Museum of Natural History, and earlier, for Naval Intelligence in the South Pacific. Thirty years ago, while stationed in the Solomon Islands, Jim befriended Tosca, a young islander who worked with him as a scout. Now Tosca has sent his daughter to stay with Jim before she begins premedical studies at Yale. She arrives to Jim’s consternation, bringing with her a flood of troubling memories. Yet she will capture his heart and that of everyone she meets, irrevocably changing their lives. Winner of the Los Angeles Times Award for First Fiction, Alice Greenway’s second novel is “a beautiful, ultimately painful story as haunting as its settings” (Publishers Weekly).

Poetry. "At once rigorous and casual, conceptual and hilarious, BIRDS OF TIFFT offers us a tour through a nature preserve reclaimed from industry. Sometimes our guide reads Tifft like an old-school naturalist, identifying flora and fauna and noting the weather; sometimes he reads it like a contemporary poet, delighting in the visual beauties and ethical ironies of a post-industrial landscape. Ultimately, however, our guide demonstrates that ecopoetics gains its power from inhabiting both positions at once. By neither idealizing nature nor demonizing industry, he shows us our own equal participation in both, and thereby animates a dialectic between 'the bittern and the train / the tulip and the dump.' Inviting us to think through our own participation in conjunctions such as these, Skinner enacts an innovative and deeply poethical practice in these poems, 'proportion's restored / to think with others'" Brian Teare."

This is Jericho Walker's story, the story of an old black man who skins the deer other people have killed. He's seen it all and heard it all, and if he had the education and the desire, these would be the stories he'd tell. Through old family secrets, opinions, gossip, and history we learn about Jericho's family and the family of Boss Bishop, the white landowner he works for, This is a richly woven story filled with lovingly depicted characters and arresting descriptions of the land, hunting, and the South.

Longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction A Radio 4 Book at Bedtime Two sisters grow together and apart into their emerging selves. Frankie pulses with curiosity and risk; Kate is watchful, all eyes and ears. Immersed in the heat and colours of Hong Kong in the 1960s, theirs is a world of fishermen and insurgents, temple gods and ghosts, of blinding light and dark, dark waters. As Frankie's behaviour becomes more and more outrageous in her defiant attempt to win her parents' attention, Kate retreats into a quiet desperation, unable to act to save the soul for whom she would sacrifice everything - Frankie.

• How are birds so good at flying and navigating? • Why are birds so like mammals– and yet so very different? • Did birds descend from dinosaurs, and if so, does that mean birds are dinosaurs? • How do they court each other and fend off rivals? • What' s being communicated in birdsong? • Can we ever know how birds think? In this fascinating exploration of the avian class, Colin Tudge considers the creatures of the air. From their evolutionary roots to their flying, feeding, fighting, mating, nesting, and communicating, Tudge provocatively ponders what birds actually do–as well as why they do it and how. With the same curiosity, passion, and insight he brought to redwoods, pines, and palm trees in his widely acclaimed book The Tree, Tudge here studies sparrows, parrots, and even the Monkey-eating Eagle to better understand their world–and our own. There is far more to a bird's existence than gliding gracefully on air currents or chirping sweetly from fence posts–the stakes are life and death. By observing and explaining the complex strategy that comes into play with everything from migration to social interaction to the timing of giving birth to young, Tudge reveals how birds are uniquely equipped biologically to succeed and survive. And he offers an impassioned plea for humans to learn to coexist with birds without continuing to endanger their survival. Complete with an "annotated cast list" of all the known birds in the world– plus gorgeous illustrations–The Bird is a comprehensive and delightfully accessible guide for everyone from dedicated birders to casual birdwatchers that celebrates and illuminates the remarkable lives of birds.

Eigengrau / [ay-gen-gr-ow ] - noun. intrinsic light; the colour seen by the eye in perfect darkness Rose believes in true love and leprechauns. Her flatmate Cassie is engaged in a fervent struggle against patriarchal oppression. Across London, Mark believes in the power of marketing. His flatmate Tim Muffin is engaged in a fervent struggle against his own waistline. In a city where Gumtree can feel like your closest friend, looking for the right person can lead you all the wrong places. Penelope Skinner's Eigengrau premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, in March 2010 in a Strawberry Vale production.