What the Birds See

"Hartnett again captures the ineffable fragility of childhood in this keenly observed tale." -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review) Nine-year-old Adrian watches his world closely, but there is much he cannot understand. He does not, for instance, know why three neighborhood children might set out to buy ice cream one summer's day and never be seen again. . . . In a suburb that is no longer safe and innocent, in a broken family of self-absorbed souls, Sonya Hartnett sets the story of a lone little boy -- unwanted, unloved, and intensely curious -- a story as achingly beautiful as it is shattering.

Sonya Hartnett is the author of THURSDAY'S CHILD and several other acclaimed novels - the first written when she was just thirteen - and the recipient of many prestigious awards in her native Australia. Of WHAT THE BIRDS SEE, she says, "The Metford children are based on three children who went missing here in Australia in the late sixties and were never found. The abduction of a child is an emotive subject, and I was wary of using someone else’s tragedy for my own purpose, so I deliberately kept the crime in the background of the book. Adrian is me in many respects, and many of the things that happen to him happened to me."