As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Tuesday 23 October 2012

‘Bird Saviors' a fierce novel meant to be re-read


Birds in many cultures, including Mexican and American Indian, are considered a link between heaven and earth. In William J. Cobb's fierce new novel “The Bird Saviors,” our winged companions are harbingers of environmental disaster in a near future of economic turmoil, fundamentalist sects, weather change, severe drought, work shortages, immigration crisis and systemic corruption.
Sound familiar? Birds also are the source of a flu that causes feverish death.
Navigating this gritty Colorado landscape (literally, red sandstorms turn falling snow a pretty pink shade) is Ruby Cole, a 17-year-old high-school dropout with a baby named Lila and a yearning to make life better for her and her daughter.
Cobb, who grew up in San Antonio and earned writing degrees from Texas State University and the University of Houston, will read from and sign copies of “The Bird Saviors” from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Twig Book Shop at Pearl Brewery.
Ruby's war veteran father, whom she refers to as “Lord God,” returned from the Middle East minus a leg and an eye and plus an Old Testament religious passion. He wants to marry her off to a polygamist “Saint,” a member of a radical Mormon sect — “the American Taliban” — that is not above hijacking tanker trucks and selling the gasoline for profit.

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