The Boy with a Bird in His Chest

A Novel

By: Emme Lund

Narrated by: Nicky Endres

Longlisted for The Center for Fiction 2022 First Novel Prize

A “poignantly rendered and illuminating” (The Washington Post) coming-of-age story about “the ways in which family, grief, love, queerness, and vulnerability all intersect” (Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author). Perfect for fans of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Thirty Names of Night.

Though Owen Tanner has never met anyone else who has a chatty bird in their chest, medical forums would call him a Terror. From the moment Gail emerged between Owen’s ribs, his mother knew that she had to hide him away from the world. After a decade spent in isolation, Owen takes a brazen trip outdoors and his life is upended forever.

Suddenly, he is forced to flee the home that had once felt so confining and hide in plain sight with his uncle and cousin in Washington. There, he feels the joy of finding a family among friends; of sharing the bird in his chest and being embraced fully; of falling in love and feeling the devastating heartbreak of rejection before finding a spark of happiness in the most unexpected place; of living his truth regardless of how hard the thieves of joy may try to tear him down. But the threat of the Army of Acronyms is a constant, looming presence, making Owen wonder if he’ll ever find a way out of the cycle of fear.

“An honest celebration of life and everything we need right now in a book” (Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize–winning author), The Boy with a Bird in His Chest grapples with the fear, depression, and feelings of isolation that come with believing that we will never be loved for who we truly are and learning to live fully and openly regardless.

©2022 Emme Lund. All rights reserved. (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Amazing writing

This is one of my favorite books now. The writing is impeccable and the emotions and though experienced by the main character are immensely relatable and powerful.

Meh

Overall a cute and interesting concept but the story took a while to hook and fought itself between a more lyrical prose and advancing the plot.

A Queer Coming of Age Contemporary Fable

This coming of age queer story has many lovely parts but, the story was hindered by the character Gale (the bird) who has an insufferable voice and sophomoric lines. For example, every time the main character gets an erection, Gale says “charge!” This compelling new age fable would be better served with replacing Gale with a more clever and interesting character.

WONDERFUL!

I loved this unusual and deep book! It is different than the average tale: love wins.

AMAZING

Everything is awesome about this story, the audio and various voices are perfect, so happy I listened to this one instead of reading. Brings up so many beautiful emotions.

I tried and I tried

I really tried to like this book but just couldn’t…I stuck it out until the end but can’t think of many redeeming qualities to the story or performance…

Effort to mix genres doesn’t work

Magical realism or science fiction? This story can’t decide, or wants to be both, and it doesn’t work. The reader makes choices with some of the female characters’ voices that don’t seem to match the tone or story. All in all it was a very disorienting experience. I gave up at the halfway point.

Not impressed

Try though I might, I just could not get through the book. I could not find the purpose or meaning behind the story and was disappointed to have wasted a credit on this read.

No where to find a story

The incessant redundancies in this book make it slow going indeed. Its metaphor(s) cannot save it. Gail is the best character.