Overview

I first noticed a grey warbler fledgling outside my window who couldn't get the tune quite right. He'd start singing, get a note wrong and falter, then try tentatively again. Like a child learning the recorder, I thought. Like a child... Into the Woods is a surprisingly joyful, hopeful little story about the power of nature, and specifically birds, to heal us when we are hurt. The narrator has lost a child and in the fog of grief that surrounds her she finds herself drawn to the birds of the New Zealand bush and their songs. She overcomes a phobia of birds to make connections with the wildlife around her and ultimately to make connections again with the people she loves. Beautifully written and honestly raw emotions make this a powerful read.

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9780473670443

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Reviews

'A funny, painful, powerful story about the strange ways grief moves through us. Helen's path of recovery, from a bed she doesn't want to leave towards a natural world she doesn't know, is full of recognisable difficulties and unlikely connections. This frank and bracing little book has a bass note of personal tragedy but a top note of surprising joy.' Damien Wilkins

Author Information

Helen is a writer of fiction and non-fiction who usually lives in a house in Naenae, sometimes on a boat in Seaview, and hardly ever but with great enthusiasm in a yurt in Wainuiomata. She studied linguistics and psychology at Victoria University, then taught English as a second language for 20 years in Ireland, England, Japan, China, and New Zealand. She has travelled through 30 countries, mostly by train, and is good at studying a new language in the carriage before crossing the border, and forgetting it completely on the journey out. She's interested in cross cultural communication and dialects; especially subtle differences between speakers of the same language.

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