LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
A slightly mystical novel about a woman who has the gift of clairvoyance. Ellen is determined to suppress this gift and changes her life completely by leaving her husband and moving to Ireland. However, the birth of her children causes her gift to change to a healing power which she is persuaded to use despite her better judgement leading to consequence not even she could have foretold.
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The Bird Woman Synopsis
The Bird Woman is a moving account of two marriages, a gift that feels like a curse, and the freedom that lies on the far side of family or group identity.
Ellen McKinnon, red-haired, clairvoyant, fiercely independent, finds her marriage, her health, her sanity threatened when she 'sees' the death of a man in a bomb attack before it has really occurred. Terrified by what's happening to her, she leaves her home, her tribe, her husband, to live with a man she barely knows in Southern Ireland. There she strives to live a normal life in a different culture, to be accepted by her husband's family and friends, to learn a new way of living. Though determined to suppress her 'gift' at any cost, with the birth of her children the clairvoyance changes and broadens into a power to heal. Slowly the rumours spread and the sick seek her out, yet she turns them away from her door.
Her husband and her closest friend demand that she question her right to suppress her remarkable powers. Reluctantly she accepts her fate, and begins her work as a healer. But the personal cost is high, and this work begins to damage her most intimate relationships. When news of the final illness of her long-estranged mother forces her return to her native city, everything falls apart for her and she finds there's no safe ground beneath her feet.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780007232772 |
| Publication date: |
16th April 2007 |
| Author: |
Kerry Hardie |
| Publisher: |
Harpercollins Publishers |
| Format: |
Paperback (b Format) |
| Primary Genre |
Family Drama
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Press Reviews
Kerry Hardie Press Reviews
Keenly observed, this atmospheric tale has eloquence and a lyrical quality.’
Irish Independent
‘“The Bird Woman” is Ellen's story, and within its fine and meaningful framework it's essentially an account of domestic life, with plenty of sex, scope for betrayal and misunderstanding, family relations, clashes of culture and viewpoint.’
Irish Times
‘an exploration of love and the nature of exile you will find hard to put down.’
Nottingham Evening Post
Author
About Kerry Hardie
Kerry Hardie was born in 1951 and went to school in Bangor, Northern Ireland. She has worked for the BBC in Belfast and for the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. She is the author of one previous novel, Hannie Bennet's Winter Marriage, and four books of poetry, A Furious Place, Cry for the Hot Belly, The Sky Didn't Fall and The Silence Came Close. She lives in County Kilkenny with her husband, Sean.
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