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 adoptive family is suddenly
thrown back to the events surrounding her unconventional arrival into
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 roller coaster 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.
MY REVIEW: Unveiling through several different points of view and alternating timelines, "The Nature of Small Birds", by Susie Finkbeiner, is a powerful story told with a delicate surety. The author takes on the still painful and controversial era of the Vietnam War and focuses on the plight of thousands of children flown from Saigon to the United States in 1975 for adoption into American families. Almost forty years later, one of those children, Mindy Matthews, now forty-two and starting over after a broken marriage, will feel the need to connect with the past in order to move forward into the future. Raised in a loving adoptive home with a close family, she is none-the-less drawn to learn more about her heritage. Will truths revealed lead to a house divided, or will knowledge of who and what came before bring about clarity of what life is about today? "The Nature of Small Birds" is written with a tender heart and a keen eye of observation.
Book Copy Gratis Revell Books
Reviews
"A beautiful story about the intricacies of family and the power of love. Most definitely a must-read novel."--Heidi Chiavaroli, Carol Award-winning author of Freedom's Ring and The Orchard House
"To open a book by Susie Finkbeiner is to accept an invitation to become part of a family you'll never forget."--Jocelyn Green, Christy Award-winning author of Shadows of the White City
"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
Susie Finkbeiner is the CBA bestselling author of All Manner of Things, which was selected as a 2020 Michigan Notable Book, and Stories That Bind Us, as well as A Cup of Dust, A Trail of Crumbs, and A Song of Home.
Her next novel The Nature of Small Birds releases in July, 2021.
She serves on the Fiction Readers Summit planning committee, volunteers her time at Ada Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and speaks at retreats and women’s events across the country. Susie and her husband have three children and live in West Michigan.
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