Digital content provided by hoopla. Read by Sarah Borges.
Summary:
The moving new novel by the author of Harmless Like You, a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice and NPR Great Read On their first date, Mina told Oscar that she was bisexual, vegetarian, and on meds. He married her anyhow. A challenge to be met. She had low days, sure, but manageable. But now, maybe not so much ? Mina is standing on the George Washington Bridge late at night, staring over the edge, when a patrol car drives up. She tries to convince the policeman she's not about to jump, but he doesn't believe her. Oscar is called to pick her up. With the idea of leaving New York for London-a place for Mina "to learn the floor-plan of this sadness"-Oscar arranges a move. In London, Mina, a classicist, tries grappling with her mental health issues by making lists of women who survived: Penelope, Psyche, Leda, Iphigenia, but only in one of the tellings. Of things that make her happy: enamel coffee cups. But what else? She at last finds a beam of light in Phoebe, and friendship and attraction blossom until Oscar and Mina's complicated love is tested. A gorgeously wrought novel, variously about love, mythology, mental illness, Japanese beer, and the times we need to seek out milder psychological climates, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan's Starling Days-written in exquisite prose rich with lightly ironic empathy-is a complex and compelling work of fiction by a singularly gifted young writer. "Everyone could use a change of scenery-and nobody more than Oscar and Mina, a married couple who leave New York for London after Mina's second suicide attempt. But a trek across the pond can't keep some old baggage away." "Tenderly explores mental illness, bisexuality, connection, love, and loss. This is an original, poetic. and striking literary triumph." "Unravelling the truth is one of the considerable pleasures of this beautifully written novel." "Portraying complex character and tangled interpersonal relations with striking maturity." "An exquisite rendering of love, sadness, and misunderstanding?I want to share this book with everyone I know." "A must for anyone who's struggled with depression or loves someone who does." "A gripping, tender, and unsettling look at mental illness. Mina's impulsiveness and obsessive behaviors, seemingly illogical, are sympathetically drawn?This nuanced work by Buchanan also addresses adult-child relationships, the legacy of family trauma, and the challenge of offering unconditional love." "Buchanan sharply observes the confusing sensations of depression?A worthy, nuanced portrait of a woman's struggle for self-determination amid mental illness." "Buchanan's newest presents another self-absorbed cast made memorably affecting by real-life challenges." "Starling Days is unlike anything I've ever read. Both quiet and scorching, this is a story about mental health, desire, and the myriad mythologies we both build and destroy. Rowan Hisayo Buchanan has offered us another supreme gift of a novel, a rare opportunity to love and forgive our darkest and most shimmering selves." "Starling Days is a beautiful and profoundly moving 'floor plan' of what it means to live with depression and dailiness, love and death, solitude and connection." "A singular novel from the poetic and painterly mind of Rowan Hisayo Buchanan." "A quiet triumph-tenderly and disarmingly exploring the responsibility of love, loneliness, and what it is to feel lost."
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.