Sparse Beauty and a Troubled Life in All the Birds, Singing

Isolated on an island with only her dog and sheep for company, Jake Whyte is exactly where she wants to be: far away from her homeland and her past. She might be alone and independent, but her vulnerability seems very real when some of her sheep are viciously killed, discovers an unknown man on her property, and worse, her past continually preys on her mind.

In All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld, Jake seems hidden but her life is slowly exposed through the book with all the hardness and toughness that she has experienced. This novel is graphic and matter of fact about the pain of poverty, violence, and her decisions that have led her to this isolation. Wyld uses sparse yet strong words about Jake’s struggles and her longing for closure from her past and her secrets. Wyld has won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, a Betty Trask Award, and was on Granta’s list of Best of Young British Novelists 2013.