Dzanc Books

228 pages, $14.95

Review by Jody Hobbs Hesler

Kim Church’s debut novel Byrd is essentially a love story for a lost child. Its main character, Addie gives the child up for adoption after she finds herself unexpectedly pregnant. The pregnancy is unintended and almost miraculous (you’ll have to read it yourself to find out why), but Addie never imagines keeping the baby. Giving him up, though, leaves a hole that Addie never quite fills. So she writes letters to her absent son, nursing “hopes but no expectations” that one day they might meet.

Spanning more than 20 years of Addie’s and birth-father Roland’s lives before and after the pregnancy, through alternating points of view, the book slowly leads us to understand why Addie feels unprepared for parenthood and why she neglects to tell Roland about the child until many years later. Inter-spliced throughout are poignant letters to Byrd, which is what Addie calls her child, intending it as “a name no one else would ever call you. One thing about you that would be only mine.” Continue reading →