Birds and Ghosts

<p>Jess Richards's beloved father died suddenly at the age of sixty-seven in Scotland. Three months later she travelled to Aotearoa New Zealand to a new relationship. This is the story of her grief and her love of a place lost and a place found of a memory-packed past and a poised present. </p><p><br></p><p><em>Birds and Ghosts</em> was written during the Covid-19 pandemic when international travel was impossible. In this achingly empty space away from her family and her father's grave Jess reconstructs her early life and ponders the self who is lonely different and invisible. A late diagnosis of Autism adds a conventional label to a uniquely personal portrait. </p><p><br></p><p>This intimate story edges the boundaries of fiction and nonfiction poetry and prose confident in its experimental style. It is memoir in a pure unconstrained form brave and beautiful moving and utterly compelling. </p><p><br></p><p>From the author of <em>Snake Ropes Cooking</em></p>