BIRDEYE by JUDITH HENEGHAN
Birdeye is a novel which shows us what the hippy dream looks like fifty years on, when the secrets which were masked by free spirit and a determined nonconformism force their way to the surface.
Liv Ferrar is 67 years old and has lived a full life. Her twin daughters, Mary and Rose, are grown, she has survived breast cancer and, in opening her home to strangers over forty years ago, she inadvertently founded the Birdeye Colony which was once a pilgrimage-worthy commune on the hippy trail in upstate New York. The community is now well past its heyday but Liv still holds to its founding principles of a weekly Sharing along with her friends and co-founders Mishti and Sonny, and Rose, whose additional needs mean she has remained dependent on her mother.
Then one late winter’s morning a stranger named Conor appears and that same night Sonny and Mishti make the devastating announcement that they are leaving. When Liv’s oldest daughter flies in from London to persuade Liv and Rose to move back to England with her, Liv resists what others see as the inevitable collapse of Birdeye. Conor seems to offer a life-line to Liv, but who is he really and what are his motives? As the cracks in this once-haven begin to show, long buried secrets are brought to the surface and Liv is forced to reassess the foundations on which she has built her life.
PUBLISHED BY SALT PUBLISHING
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MY REVIEW
I found this to be one of those quietly powerful books! It grabs you with the characters and the setting, and gets under your skin as you follow their story showing their strengths and vunerabilities and beautifully captures what it is to be human.
Liv runs a remote Colony and has done for years. Living off the grid, so to speak, she set up in a remote area not only to help herself, but to help others who find their way to her, all with different reasons for needing space and a change of scenery. And Liv understands the complexity of humans, dealing with issues throughout her life while living with her daughter.
Conor shows up out of nowhere and you’re left guessing as to what his reasons are. the more time he spends with Liv and her family, the more insights he gets, and I love the fact that you get to spend time with each character and get to understand them more. there’s often an uneasy feeling about the goings on as you try and figure out if they’re hiding things from each other and it really strips each character back to basics as there’s no distractions on the colony. What are they running from? What is next for them looking forward? All those questions that plague us all, no matter what age we are!
Liv is facing up to her own issues with aging and living so remotely, and the author has done a beautiful job of treating each character sympathetically, even if some do make you mad at times!! A really absorbing read and one I’d highly recommend!!
Book 2 of my 20 Books of Summer 2024
Books and Me! 
2 responses to “#BookReview BIRDEYE by JUDITH HENEGHAN #20BooksofSummer2024”
another fab review! xx
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thanks! xx
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