The Bird Artist by Howard Norman (Picador, $14). This 1994 novel is quirky (there is no other word) and beautiful. It concerns Fabian Vas, the bird artist of the title, and wonderful, odd Margaret, a woman who always asks questions most people wouldn’t. There’s a murder and a lighthouse, and it’s set in Newfoundland. Just read it, though; this description is too reductive to convey all the strangeness of the thing.
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