THE NATURE OF SMALL BIRDS
BY SUSIE FINKBEINER
Publisher: Revell
Pub Date: July 6, 2021
Pages: 368 pages
Categories: Fiction / Christian / General
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In 1975, three thousand children were airlifted out of Saigon to be adopted into Western homes. When Mindy, one of those children, announces her plans to return to Vietnam to find her birth mother, her loving adopted family is suddenly thrown back to the events surrounding her unconventional arrival in their lives.
Though her father supports Mindy’s desire to meet her family of origin, he struggles privately with an unsettling fear that he’ll lose the daughter he’s poured his heart into. Mindy’s mother undergoes the emotional rollercoaster inherent in the adoption of a child from a war-torn country, discovering the joy hidden amid the difficulties. And Mindy’s sister helps her sort through relics that whisper of the effect the trauma of war has had on their family–but also speak of the beauty of overcoming.
Told through three strong voices in three compelling timelines, The Nature of Small Birds is a hopeful story that explores the meaning of family far beyond genetic code.
“Susie Finkbeiner has such an inviting and distinctive voice as a writer that you’ll gladly follow it–and follow her–to any setting.”–Valerie Fraser Luesse, Christy Award-winning author of Under the Bayou Moon
“There’s no morning without night. And there’s no need of overcoming if in this world we don’t have trouble.”
The Nature of Small Birds by Susie Finkbeiner is an unbelievably lovely story that will break your heart and mend it an instant later, repeating the cycle until you have become an entirely new person. Family, in all its mess and glory, is at the heart of The Nature of Small Birds, with the main focus on Bruce and Linda Matthews and their three daughters, Sonny, Mindy, and Holly. When the couple thought they could have no more children after Sonny, they made the controversial decision to adopt a child from Vietnam in 1975. Pham Quyen Minh quickly became known as Mindy, and, surprise! surprise!, Holly was born many years later in 1988. This unconventional family will squeeze your heart and give you hope that unconditional love really is enough to create and bind a family through all of life’s delights, uncertainties, losses, and tenderness. It’s all there.
Susie Finkbeiner captures the moments of this epic story through three points of view during the three most poignant times in the life of the Matthews family in Michigan: Linda’s viewpoint in 1975, Sonny’s viewpoint in 1988, and Bruce’s viewpoint in 2013/2014. The story swings back and forth across these three years and points of views, which can take a bit of getting used to at first. Fortunately, the author’s writing is so smooth, and the plot is so engrossing, that becoming ensconced in the overall story takes no time at all.
The Nature of Small Birds blossoms across the pages in true literary fashion as the characters are immediately developed into realistic people and as the exquisite plot experiences several dramatic peaks and dips. For example, Bruce lost a brother in Vietnam; therefore, adopting a Vietnamese child raises a few eyebrows and sends Bruce’s mother into a tailspin. The dynamics of this entire family are what give this story its literary flair, providing the reader with a front row seat to the drama, tension, heartache, and love. Over the years, Bruce and Linda raise three little ‘birds,’ who grow up to encounter their own joy and a bit of heartbreak in life. In 2013, Sonny and Mindy fly back to the nest when it is Holly’s turn to wed before she leaves the nest empty. At this time, Mindy makes the monumental decision to locate her birth mother and/or any family in Vietnam, which is an entire dramatic story in itself nestled among the pages of this incredible family album of a story.
“Turns out that the nature of small birds is to fly. It’s no different for our kids.”
Everything about The Nature of Small Birds is enchanting, even when events and behaviors are less than rosy. That is life. The good and bad mingle and create a life worth living and a family worth loving. This story will appeal to pretty much everyone who enjoys a literary fiction that satisfies all the emotions and leaves a trail of positive feelings in its wake.
“It’s the nature of small birds to sing their little hearts out. And it’s the nature of God to hear them.”
Enter the giveaway below on or before July 24, 2021, for a chance to win some fabulous prizes!
I received a free copy of this book from Lone Star Book Blog Tours in exchange for my honest review.
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(Giveaway ends midnight, CDT, July 24, 2021; US only.)
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Fabulous & insightful review. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. *Added to TBR*